Ripped Off

[Price 2002]

This might get kinda long so I will start out by thanking everyone that reads it! As many of you know I am graduating October 1st with my degree in Practical Nursing. My school only has once a year mass graduation ceremonies (every May), I knew that going into the program and totally understood but I was told that EVERY nursing program would have a pinning ceremony, as was everyone else in the nursing program that I have spoke to. So last week my class is told that we will be having our pinning on November 21st, we were given a time, the place, how many tickets we could have so we could plan on who to invite (8 tickets per person), told about parking, what to wear, and what to expect etc. We were all very excited, as you can imagine. So yesterday they come into our class and tell us that everything is changed and our pinning will be October 3rd. Well that sounded great until they told us that we were going to be pinned with the MA students because it is not fair that we get pinned and they don't and that the pinning will be held at 1pm on a Friday, at the school and we are only allowed to invited 2 people. I am a married mother of two kids! How is that fair? Many of us are married or involved and have childern and other family members that have supported us through out this. My very elderly grandma was looking forward to watching my get pinned and to bring her into my old school with all kinds of other classes walking around and being loud just seems for the lack of a better word trashy. So many of us are upset because we feel lied to. How can they expect people to take off work in the middle of the day to attend this?

Then when everyone started objecting to this new "pinning" we are told not to make to big deal of a fuss and shut our mouths or we may lose it all together. As it stands now we are boycotting the "pinning" and having our own after graduation. It just is one more thing to worry about that we shouldn't have to when it has been promised to us from the beginning. Thank you for reading this....any advice or comments or encouragement would help so much at this point!

[Laught3r]

I would ask if the nurses could have their pinning at a different time on the same day. That way every one can have more guests.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Sounds like you guys are making the best of a crummy situation. I really respect how you guys are dealing with the situation. I agree that your school has done you quite wrong.

[deleern]

I think your school is sending the wrong message to the MA students

[RN1982]

Please be happy you are having a pinning ceremony. When I graduated, my class didn't because my school claimed they couldn't afford it.

[Happy2CU]

I would ask the school if I could at least have the pin that I paid for and skip the pinning ceremony the school is planning. It's nice that you and your classmates are doing something special on your own. My LPN pinning was held in the school, very crowded, not enough seats for everyone, it was crappy and kind of an embarassment to be honest. I wish I would have skipped it. Tell them you want the pin you paid for, do your own thing and enjoy your special personal pinning with your family and classmates. Congrats!!

[dani_girl]

I would boycott too.. and find out what happened to the money that was to go to the nursing event?? Are they using it for both, keeping it, or using it for something else entirely??

It will make more of an impact if the whole class boycotts.. that being said, you should get your group to talk to the MA's, they might be feeling the same way..

It is sad that they are telling you to shut up and smile and that is a bummer.. sorry. My school was having such a time with pictures (because we have 3 satelite campuses) they were like here it is take it or leave it.. that my friends and I went to the mall and got them done instead.. they were nicer and cheaper.. plus we got some group pictures of the people we wanted (my clinical group) and I got those cheesey picture cards for everyone..

good luck and congratz on your graduation sorry it isn't going as you would like it

[APUalyssa*]

first of all CONGRADULATIONS

:hpygrp:

i know you feel like you have been ripped off, especially with the rescheduling and the addition of the MA's getting pinned with you.

[i just cant believe they added them and cut you guys off, BECAUSE THEY WERE COMPLAINING! uggggg tell them to grow up... they already have their bacholers ceremony and all, its your turn!!!]

also...

its hard to ask people who want to be there take a friday after noon [ in the middle of the darn day] off to come when your only invited two people

i know your class is boycotting and i do not blame you and i cant believe there is no other way to have kept your day and they have their own some other week! thats CRAZY!

them telling you to shut up and take or leave it is ridiculous! i mean its your day and you worked hard for it...and all the time and MONEY spent to do this...i mean what are they saving it for?

ugg

ok well i would say have your own pinning if the school doesnt put their act together on this issue!

hope it works out well!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I was graduated in December. We had a pinning ceremony only because the class raised money and did it off campus at a church. We did not involve the school per se, but the nursing instructors all chose to be there. The school decided to save money by having only one graduation per year (May). So I was forced to pay for graduation fees even though I had no intention of going to a ceremony months after I was out of school. What I am saying is that the school may be trying to save money. In the end, it won't really matter. But the IDEA of it does matter.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

When I was in BSN school, we were told that we had to do our own pinning ceremony if we wanted one, that the staff and faculty would not help us in any way. So we did, and guess what? About a monthe beforehand, this loo-la of an instructor (Lord have mercy, but I hated this woman, and that is not a word I use lightly, usually only about brussels sprouts and liver!) makes the pronouncement that we are expected to invite all of the staff and faculty to ATTEND the pinning. Well, I'm a loudmouth anyway, and this really steamed my clams, so I questioned it.

Her response was that it was polite, appropriate, and proper. So I asked her what was polite, appropriate, or proper about being forced to invite a passel of people to a ceremony that they refused to help with or even acknowledge.

I'm probably lucky I graduated, because, boy, did she have it in for me after that, more so than she did to begin with.

Go have your own ceremony, and to heck with them. Telling you that if you ask one more time you won't get it at all is for 3 year olds, which is just exactly what those MA students are acting like. Good luck!

[Batman24]

What a sham. I'd be ticked too. Your supervisors must be wusses to have let this happen. They change the date, take away 6 tickets per person, and add MAs into the ceremony?! Pls. MAs aren't nurses and shouldn't be involved in your pinning ceremony. The nurses have the right to celebrate this day together. Not a slam to MAs either. It's just what is right and just in this particular situation.

Get the pin you paid for and have your own ceremony and celebration as planned. Sounds like you go to school with a great bunch of nurses who are all willing to pitch in and help out and now you can share the day with family and friends as planned.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I say boycott. I boycotted my own pinning ceremony and I was the top graduate. Never regretted it, because in my eye, the real deal was passing NCLEX.

I do not think that the MAs should be included, either. They did not go through what you did as nursing students, and will not share your responsibilities, either.

The only thing I am concerned about is if attending this ceremony is an unspoken mandatory event...meaning that somehow, this can affect how quickly your paperwork is processed to the BON that will allow you to sit for NCLEX PN. I'm a very suspicious person, and think that people who hold grudges will pull all sorts of malicious stunts just to prove a point. Either way, it is just one day, and you will take your state board and begin your career independent of all of them.

[Xbox Live Addict]

Thank you all for your responses. I feel very torn by the whole thing. I am not upset about being rescheduled...I know in nursing you have to be flexible so those sort of things do not bother me. What gets me if the fact that we were suppose to have this nice ceremony that was traditional in a beautiful church and now it is at our school with the MA students and it has been completely cheapened. But most of my class has come together and already booked a site on Oct 10th in a nice local church and we are ordering our own pins and having food catered in and having some of our very supportive instructors pin us and officate the ceremony. It just would have been nice to get what we paid for and not have to go to this extra trouble. But this way my whole family can come. I am still unsure if I will go and get the pin that I paid for or if I will just skip it all together. Thank you all again. :wink2:

Although it sucks that you're having to pay your own way to get the ceremony you worked for, after already having paid and paid, it sounds like you guys are planning a wonderful ceremony of your own and sending a message at the same time. Plus, your family will be able to watch your crowning achievement. It's clear that not all of your instructors support the decision made with regards to the school ceremony, too.