Need ideas for pinning ceremony

[NurseDixie]

In our nursing school, the first year nursing students have to plan the pinning ceremony, from the refreshments to the decorations (flowers, candles,etc.) I could use some ideas for this, as I am not a very creative person. There are others working on this, not just me, thank goodness. The ceremony will be sometime in May.Thanks.:)

[semstr]

Hi there,

Here we do it a bit different.

The official side of the ceremony is in the townhall, with mayor etc., national item is played, very nice!!

The "common" ceremony is planned by the class'educator. Last year it was my class and it was real fun to organize everything, a lot of work (and part of my own money too, but that was my decision)

The theme was "the sea"

So I ordered flowers in greens and white (sprayed a few blue myself)

Brought a lot of beautiful shells from Greece, and put these on the blue tableclothes.

Bought napkins with maritime things on it, and bought a few of these little wooden sailingboats (they were cute!!)

For this occation, the Chef du cuisine of our hospital is very cooperativ too! He made shrimpscocktails and made salmonsnacks with salads. Great!!!

I choose "the sea" for a few reasons:

1 my students swam a long distance already (3 years)

2 during this time, this sea was sometimes very deep and scary

3 but all seas have shores and beaches, in the end

4 and now they are going to sea alone

5 but, there are always lifeguards watching

6 when in trouble, don't hesitate to call for them

7 I'll still be there!!

Well, as you may have guessed, I love to be an educator and I was very emotional about this bunch getting ready to leave school.

This is a year ago in september, and most of them are doing fine, sometimes I am being used as the lifeguard, but that is good!!

Just an idea, take care, Renee

[colleen10]

Hi Dixie,

I haven't gone through the nursing program yet but I have done the sorority pinning thing.

Our organization would do candle lite ceremonies for pinnings, etc. We would keep the room dark and each person would hold an unlit candle in their hand and then one person would lite theirs and then you would lite the candle of the person next to you and go around the room. We would cut out round pieces of card stock with a hole in the middle to slide the candle through so that it wouldn't drip on your hand. You should really try to use non-drip candles though. Hot wax hurts. On the round pieces of card stock we would write in caligrophy the date, pledge class, what ceremony it was so that they could keep them as a rememberance. You could put the date and maybe something like "pinning ceremony" or if you have a theme you could put that too.

We would also sing songs and do inspirational readings.

Do you have to have centerpieces for tables? If you do an internet search for "do it yourself" crafts you can come up with a ton of in-expensive ideas for centerpieces, etc.

Let us know if you need more help with specific stuff.

[KC CHICK]

We took pictures throughout our last semester and turned it into a very nice slide show. Pics were taken at clinical sites, the nursing lab at school, and in the classroom. They were scanned into the computer somehow....can't remember what program they used. The show was set to music and turned out to be emotional. There were very few dry eyes left in our class at the end. It was the highlight of our graduation ceremony.

Good Luck w/your plans.

Anne:D

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

Hey all,

Well I am part of our student nursing association and a we have control over the pinning ceremony especially for when we graduate in a million years. :) Right now they're doing it where another student talks about us while the graduating student in question stands in the middle of this stage. The other person says "And so-and-so would like to thank....they have enjoyed this..." Excuse me, but I want to thank my own people LOL!! So that is the main thing we are changing. Also a lot of students are not into the idea of buying a pin in light of licensing costs etc... So it's not required to buy a pin which is nice, but EVERYONE is recognized.

Z

[nehi]

Hi,

The pinning ceremony should reflect that class of students. Express your hobbies, share the good and the bad. I would suggest making a survey form and pass out to all the students participating. Ask questions like favorite colors, flowers, most embarrassing moment etc. At least with the results of the survey you may get some ideas. Also don't hesitate to ask for donations from florist, churches and other organizations if you need to.