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

Nursing Students Male Students

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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 :D 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.:lol2:

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?

Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.

Caps? Nightengale pledge? How... lame.

Students in my class would've raised h-ll over having a pinning like that...

Thank the good lord that I didn't have to do any of this; in fact this is the first time I've heard of anything like this. G'luck with it!

I'm female and that pledge wants to make ME barf!

Back in the Nightingale days, nurses were spinsters. If they married, they had to leave the profession. So the "purity" comment, in this context DOES imply virginal. UGH. We are sooooo past that point in this profession!

Specializes in IMCU.

I am female and the Nightingale Pledge is outdated, religious AND too girlie.

No wonder we have trouble being treated as professionals sometimes.

I am female and the Nightingale Pledge is outdated, religious AND too girlie.

No wonder we have trouble being treated as professionals sometimes.

As you can see from this board, many of the people in nursing now are unaware of the pledge -- I guarantee you no one outside of nursing is aware of it. Of all the issues keeping nurses down, I would venture to say the Nightingale Pledge is the least of our problems ...

Specializes in geriatrics.

Just had our pinnining ceremony August 3rd. We wore caps if we wanted to and we did recite the Nightingale pledge but we all voted on this were not made to by our instructor and we did not memorize the pledge either we recited it after our instructor. Not all of the women in my class wore hats but our class pictures were still great. Some even decided to wear the dress instead of scrubs. I do not think this is all that bad. But like I said we all voted on what we wanted to do our pinning ceremony was ours not something our instuctor decided for us to do.

Is it possible to skip the pledge, wearing white, and getting some kind of pin? Geez. How castrating. Another reason I'm glad I didn't go the BSN route.

The two men in the class of 23 were given caps made from regular baseball caps with signs designating the males as 'boy nurse'. Most of the class consider the nursing caps as a burden, so they had us wear ours also. I proudly stood for the picture, saying 'Get the shot now, no more chances after this'. I did request to wear mine to clinicals, just like everyone else, and was told 'no'. The class is participating in a tradition that includes the caps. When we graduate, I am requesting a change in the the sign on my cap to 'man nurse' or even better, 'real nurse'. We didn't recite a pledge. The instructor did gracefully accept a small cement gorgoyle as a momento of the occasion from me.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.
Good one :D 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.

I can't decide if I want to laugh hysterically or simply... barf.

You have to memorize and recite the NG pledge. Give me a break.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.

The NG pledge is a throwback to nuns and monks serving as nurses.

I'm looking for a professional job, not to join a religious order... and I'm looking forward to working WITH physicians, not serving as their handmaiden or cabin boy.

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

I just found out we will recite the Nightingale Pledge at our pinning ceremony in December. This is a real and significant problem for me. I will not say it.

Why on Earth do some nursing programs say this pledge when it violates so much they are actually teaching in their programs? Tradition is not sacred and to be repeated and reinforced when it is in error. This really disturbs me, how nurses sometimes undermine their own profession.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.
I just found out we will recite the Nightingale Pledge at our pinning ceremony in December. This is a real and significant problem for me. I will not say it.

Why on Earth do some nursing programs say this pledge when it violates so much they are actually teaching in their programs? Tradition is not sacred and to be repeated and reinforced when it is in error. This really disturbs me, how nurses sometimes undermine their own profession.

Sorry you have to do this. We got to decided as a class and fortunately none of us were down with the NG pledge. If we'd have gone that way I would've simply stood quietly and not said anything. Too bad you're being put on the spot - but at least you don't have to do what Tony did.

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