Nightingale Pledge and Nursing hats at pinning ceremony....

[Tony1790]

Any of you fella's face this dilemma,

We have our pinning ceremony in 5 weeks and the girls in class decided that they wanted to wear nurse caps and white's. So us fella (thank god don't have hats) will stand out a little more than usual, I thought that standardization would be best (no hats) and those hats are so......1960.

Second is the pledge, there is a LPN pledge (we aren't using) and the Nightingale pledge that we are using. What sticks in my claw is that it's written with the old female stereotypes built in...."I pledge to live my life in purity"......"endeavor to aid the physician in his work". And we wonder why this is thought of as womens work, even the pledge is geared toward women, I don't know too many people living their lives in purity these days and women aren't doctors now?

I know petty BS, but it's bad enough joining the girls club without having to take a girlie pledge I like the LPN pledge better as it is gender neutral and reflects the current work/world environment a little better, but that's just the fella in my talking.

Tony

p.s. Girls who read this, yes I know nursing is mostly women, yes the girls want their caps, yes I'll be at the pinning ceremony and no, I won't spoil the ladies enjoyment by complaining about their caps.....even though no one wears them anymore and by wearing them they are excluding the boys from part of the ceremony....are they not?

[nursenow]

As a guy, I thought our pinning ceremony was along the lines of what high school girls would want to do. I decided not to go. Funny, now that I think back, my class was mostly teenage girls or young women still stuck in that phase of life. Some of my friends and I went out for margaritas. The toasts we gave each other meant more than any ceremony the school could have given us.

[swirlything]

Our pinning included the pledge, which I had no idea was coming until it was thrust upon us in rehearsal. I couldn't believe the wording. I am a person who believes that my word is my bond. As such, I refused to utter the portions that I did not like. That included, among other bits, the part about never doing anything mischievous... that's a little overboard, isn't it? I mean, being mischievous is to cause annoyance or minor injury, or being irresponsibly playful, according to Merriam Webster. I'm not going to promise never to be annoying! That's just ridiculous!

[LoRNzo]

I agree that the pledge is outdated and the white hats come on. I too had to endure the torture of tradition, my arguement that did get some of the females to come to my side was it too was tradition for the nurses to stand up in respect when the physician entered the room is that the type of nostalgia your looking for with white clothing and purity pledges.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

If my pinning ceremony is going to have us say this ridiculous Nightingale pledge (which wasn't written by Nightingale btw), I'm not attending. I'm hearing from a couple sources that we do say the Nightingale pledge in my program. I'll have to be a thorn in the pinning committee's side and try to get it changed if this is the case.

That pledge is absurdly outdated and needs to stay in another century. I am not inviting my family to some event where the solemn pledge would reduce us, even if just momentarily, to angelic-Victorian-virginal-physician handmaidens. My family knows little about nursing, and I've tried to inform them about nurses' knowledge, expertise, and responsibilities. They tended to have old-fashioned ideas that nurses are basically handmaidens. So to reinforce that at my own pinning ceremony? I don't think so.

Plus, we should be moving away from virtue-scripting in nursing, not reinforcing it. In some ways, nursing really needs to grow up already.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

Good one I guess I'll decline as well, I need to go study the pledge, we are getting graded on it as well. Have to recite it in the instructors office.

:barf01::barf01:

I knew I would use the barfing emoticon someday for something revolting, and this is it.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

I don't see why "living (your) life in purity" is a gender-related issue ...

With traditional religious implications, it's "code" for virginal to many.

[elkpark]

With traditional religious implications, it's "code" for virginal to many.

I realize that, but that's certainly not the only possible meaning, and I still don't see how it's gender-specific (only applicable to females, that is).

BTW, don't interpret my comments/questions here to suggest that I'm defending use of the original Pledge.

[Multicollinearity, BSN, RN]

I realize that, but that's certainly not the only possible meaning, and I still don't see how it's gender-specific (only applicable to females, that is).

BTW, don't interpret my comments/questions here to suggest that I'm defending use of the original Pledge.

OK. I understand you aren't defending use of the original pledge.

It is my opinion that there is too much religious baggage having to do with "purity" and controlling women's sexuality to use the word "purity." "Integrity" would be a better choice, IMO.

You know many young women in the U.S. are giving "purity pledges" to their families, and in particular, to their fathers?

[elkpark]

OK. I understand you aren't defending use of the original pledge.

It is my opinion that there is too much religious baggage having to do with "purity" and controlling women's sexuality to use the word "purity." "Integrity" would be a better choice, IMO.

You know many young women in the U.S. are giving "purity pledges" to their families, and in particular, to their fathers?

I've seen some updated versions of the pledge that I like, that don't get into the "purity" nonsense. If a school really feels the need to use a pledge/oath, I could see using one of those. I agree that the original pledge embodies all the worst Victorian clichés about "womanhood," femininity, servitude, etc. (I can't imagine that Flo herself would have ever written such drivel, or allowed her name to be attached to it!)

I am aware of the "purity pledge" movement -- the whole business gives me the heebie-jeebies (the father-daughter connection), and I think it's interesting that studies have been done that have found that this type of program not only doesn't work (rates of premarital sex are no lower than the general teen popularion), but the participants actually end up with higher teen pregnancy rates than the "heathen" :) girls who don't take part in such programs.

[Tony1790, BSN, MSN, NP]

I'm having a real mental block on trying to memorize this drivel, I don't care for it but I'm getting graded on it. I'm already past my deadline for memorization and points taken off, but I can get past the 3rd paragraph, too much and too little interest on my part ;-)

Anywho, 3 weeks until graduation, can't wait!

Tony

[elkpark]

I'm having a real mental block on trying to memorize this drivel, I don't care for it but I'm getting graded on it. I'm already past my deadline for memorization and points taken off, but I can get past the 3rd paragraph, too much and too little interest on my part ;-)

Anywho, 3 weeks until graduation, can't wait!

Tony

Good luck -- if you're that close to graduation, you've already gotten through a lot worse! (than having to memorize the pledge, that is :))

[Tony1790, BSN, MSN, NP]

I'm having a real mental block on trying to memorize this drivel, I don't care for it but I'm getting graded on it. I'm already past my deadline for memorization and points taken off, but I can get past the 3rd paragraph, too much and too little interest on my part ;-)

Anywho, 3 weeks until graduation, can't wait!

Tony

I'm being too harsh, I'm sure it means something to someone, but I'm 42, been around the world and done way to many deleterious things to pledge purity to anyone

I just can't for the life of me memorize this thing, I had hard enough time trying to memorize lab values and what not.

Tony