The Nightingale Pledge - Still relevant today?

[Julius Seizure]

Personally, I feel like it could use an update.

I feel like its outdated and perhaps out of touch, and it diminishes the critical thinking and professionalism that one needs to be an excellent nurse, instead focusing on nurses promising to be good people and to play handmaiden to the doctors.

I wouldn't mind an oath for nurses...but I'm not a fan of the one we currently have. If I were on a committee to write a new pledge, I would want to add to it some wording about being critical thinkers and knowledgeable about our fields. Something that encompasses our roles as professional clinicians AND as comforters and caretakers. I would definitely keep the part about elevating the standard of our profession. I would probably want to update the wording on the "aid the physician in his work"...because heath care is our work too, and it takes a team.

For anyone who doesn't recall the pledge, here it is:

"I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care."

Anyway, I'm just wondering if I am the only one who feels this way. Please don't hate - I still love my job as a nurse and I try to be a good one!

[Bbett, MSN, NP]

Huh. I never knew there was a nightingale pledge 😳

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Don'tStop, ASN. First, I LOVE your username. Nurses never stop learning or doing or being at the forefront of healthcare.

Second, the pledge is recited at some pinning ceremonies as a tradition. Some people do not like traditions. You can be a great nurse without reciting a script

[Julius Seizure]

classicdame said:

Second, the pledge is recited at some pinning ceremonies as a tradition. Some people do not like traditions. You can be a great nurse without reciting a script

It seems a lot of people were giving the option of participating or not. I had no idea that was so common. All I knew was MY nursing school....and mine was not an option. In fact, I didn't buy a pin because I wasn't interested in owning one (nursing is still great, don't worry)....so they insisted that I go to the pinning ceremony anyway and get pinned with a "loaner" pin that I had to give back after the ceremony. I don't think it will be any shock when I say that it wasn't particularly a special moment for me. ? But for some it is, and I respect that.

classicdame said:

I think it is more of a tradition than anything. I get sooooooooooo tired of people taking offense at the most minute details. Smile a little!

Don't worry, even though I'm not a massive fan of the pledge, I do still smile on a daily basis. Just making conversation! ?

[Bbett, MSN, NP]

My school doesn't even do pinning ceremonies anymore so this is probably why I hadn't heard of it.

[Farawyn]

Quote

My school doesn't even do pinning ceremonies anymore so this is probably why I hadn't heard of it.

I cried like a baby at my pinning.

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

Farawyn said:

 I cried like a baby at my pinning.

Glad I wasn't the only one...

[DoGoodThenGo]

No offense but think the bit about "passing my life in purity" comes a bit late for some......

*LOL*

[OCNRN63, RN]

Farawyn said:

 I cried like a baby at my pinning.

I didn't go to my pinning because there were religious elements I disagreed with. My school threatened to not give me my pin. That turned into a battle royal; how could they withhold something I paid for? Eventually they did give me my pin, but not until the formal pinning was over.

I cried when I was capped and again at graduation when we got our graduation caps.

[smartnurse1982]

I think its the religious aspect that might offend some people.

How would an atheist nurse react to saying "I stand before God?"

What if someone was Hindu?

[Bbett, MSN, NP]

smartnurse1982 said:

I think its the religious aspect that might offend some people.

How would an atheist nurse react to saying "I stand before God?"

What if someone was Hindu?

Yeah when I read that part I was glad I was not ever forced to recite this. Times have changed, it needs an update.

[elkpark]

smartnurse1982 said:

I think its the religious aspect that might offend some people.

How would an atheist nurse react to saying "I stand before God?"

What if someone was Hindu?

The same way we do to "one nation, under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance. With the understanding that it's an irrelevant "leftover" from an earlier time (IMO, the "under God" in the pledge is much more offensive because of its history. At least the writer of the Nightingale pledge was sincere when she wrote it). I just omit the "under God" when I say the PoA (I can't help that it's now in there, but, by golly, nobody can make me say it :)), and would do the same today with the Nightingale pledge -- although, if it were up to me, I would use one of the updated versions and omit any reference to "God."

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

We recited it at my pinning ceremony in December.