Required to wear all white and carry a flower during pinning cermony

[Bala Shark]

I just had my graduation....I felt girly because the students chose to wear all white and we had to carry a girly flower...I mean, if males dont speak up about this, it would seem that it is a female profession..Just to note, the females did plan this pinning ceremony and I know for a fact, that it had a feminine tone to it..It was suited for females and not unisexed! Now that is not fair at all!

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

I think that you are making a mountain out of a molehill here.

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

Not long ago, our NM requested that we all wear whites for one day. I attributed this to her steadily worsening dementia, but it seemed better to humor the gal than butt heads with her. I later learned that it was part of a tribute to a couple of our co-workers who had started when all white was the norm. Had I known the rationale, I'd have been a lot more cheerful about it.

One of my co-workers went so far as to wear her old nursing cap. At the request of my peers, I wore it outside on a smoke break. I'm told I looked quite fetching. I must say, I'm truly astounded that anyone was ever able to do any work in those things.

Dementia or no, I did give the NM a hard time when she showed up that morning in plain old manager clothes.

[gyanwn]

never mind

[styRN]

i'm male and graduated in 1988, and at the small community college in the small town where i graduated, white uniforms and caps (for the ladies) were the norm for nurses. during training we had to wear fugly pinstriped uniforms, so white was a welcome relief.

our pinning ceremony was attended by all 52 graduates, including 5 guys, at the time the most guys that had ever graduated at a time and we were proud of that.

the ladies were given a single rose and the guys received a rose boutineer(sp), the lamp was lit, we all lit our candles and recited the creed.

it was solemn and beautiful and i wouldn't have changed a thing. none of us made a big deal about it.

we kind of made jokes and kidded about the ceremony, but really, it was no big deal and i think this is much ado about nothing. is it really that much different than the ultra-traditional graduation ceremonies at the ivy league schools?

nursing is steeped in tradition, and so much of that has gone by the wayside, for good or bad, and i believe that we should embrace what little there is left.

i say suck it up.

[RN4Nascar]

At our pinning ceremony this year, we all wore white scrubs...the guys wore flower on shirt. It looked really sharp. I was on the pinning commitee and we did discuss that too, there was a guy on the commitee and he suggested that instead of the men carrying the flower. We didnt have to hold ours the whole time. The ceremony was really nice and everyone guys and gals proudly wore our whites!! :)

[pawashrn]

does it matter, if they made you wear stockings with garter belts and high heels. The bottom line is. It took approx. 20 minutes to wear a white uniform and carry a flower. think of all the things you have done in your life that more people saw and took longer to do and had nothing to do with a ceremony. My God, I would have gone naked if it meant I could take back more embarrassing things I have done. Here is a heads-up. Nurses wear uniforms (scrubs), because nursing is a submissive profession. We will always be second to the needs of the family.patient,doctors policies. How many of us have gone hungry or avoid going to the bathroom, because someone else needed something.

Do it-drop it and move on.

[sunshineintheforest]

I see that this thread is pretty old..so I wonder..has anything changed as of 2010? I don't understand why they don't just require white graduation gowns.. Perhaps they could add a red sash around the neck! How would one even go about changing these traditions? I have about a year and a half until graduation and I have no idea what my school does but if it's anything like the posts I've read I would hope I could do my part to help change it.

I don't think it's about just getting through it. You should feel proud and honored in what the ceremony represents. You shouldn't have to spend the ceremony in something your great Grandma would have worn. Graduation gowns are very traditional, unisex and sophisticated. You have accomplished a great success, it shouldn't be treated how it was before you were even required to obtain a degree to be a nurse! Just my

[Argo]

This all sounds pretty stupid. I am glad I skipped my pinning ceremony. Its been over 3 years and I have not thought about it since then, until seeing this thread....

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Is attending this kind of thing mandatory?

I was shown this lamp the other day along with a pair of white scrubs and told about pinning. I immediately thought "**** that, I'm not doing this ****."

[elkpark]

Is attending this kind of thing mandatory?

I was shown this lamp the other day along with a pair of white scrubs and told about pinning. I immediately thought "**** that, I'm not doing this ****."

It depends on the school to some extent. Many schools don't even offer pinning ceremonies any more. Others take it v. seriously.

When I was graduating from a state uni BSN completion program a number of years ago, I wasn't interested in attending the pinning ceremony (although I did participate in all the other commencement activities) -- I had originally graduated from a hospital-based diploma ceremony and had been pinned at that time (in a lovely ceremony that was the official graduation ceremony for the school (and not nearly as schmaltzy as I hear many pinning ceremonies described nowadays ... )), and didn't see any reason to get pinned again ("pinning" is about becoming a nurse, and I was already a nurse; for me, this was about completing the academic degree). Also, it would have been a two-hour drive each way for me to attend. I didn't have any objections to the ceremony being held, but I was in a v. different place from the full-time, "regular" BSN students who were just starting out in nursing (who were v. excited about the ceremony),

I heard later from a faculty member at the nursing program (who was so angry about it that she "broke ranks" and told me, which, of course, she wasn't supposed to do) that the nursing faculty had originally voted me the recipient of the "outstanding graduate" award for overall excellence, given each year (at the pinning ceremony) to the top nursing student in the graduating class, but, when they heard "through the grapevine" that I wasn't planning on attending the ceremony, some of them were so offended by that that they took the award away from me and gave it to another student (someone who was going to the pinning). Go figure -- you'd think I either was the outstanding graduate or I wasn't, but I guess it wasn't that simple.

[Schuur451]

Ouch...

We had to wear light purple shirts for community service day in nursing school. I was picking up trash next to a local college football team's practice. Didn't feel good. All of the guys in our class complained about it, and next year the shirt was black.