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I feel like its outdated and perhaps out of touch, and it diminishes the critical thinking and professionalism that one needs to be an excellent nurse, instead focusing on nurses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!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

For me, there is only one deity, God, and it is through His only son Jesus that I have life. I've no problem with the current wording due to my faith in God, and being Ok to give God my pledge.

[Guest805836]

pmabraham said:

For me, there is only one deity, God, and it is through His only son Jesus that I have life. I've no problem with the current wording due to my faith in God, and being OK to give God my pledge.

Yes, but you are probably aware that not everyone holds the same faith..

I was brought up in a poorly practicing orthodox Jewish home, but have never really adhered to any form of religion. Now that I am adult, I consider myself an agnostic. I wouldn't be phased by pronouncing a pledge with some evocation of any deity, but I sure wouldn't really believe it..

[Joyel]

What's wrong with purity. I think it separates modern nurses from pre-Nightingale hookers. That's who and what " nurses" were before dear Flo came along to set some standards.

[Julius Seizure]

Joyel said:

What's wrong with purity. I think it separates modern nurses from pre-Nightingale hookers. That's who and what " nurses" were before dear Flo came along to set some standards.

It's not that something is wrong with purity. It's that ones pureness or lack thereof should not be a part of the discussion. Sure, I promise to care for my patients to the best of my ability, but I would like my personal life and purity level kept separate from that arena.

[justinaprn2004]

One of my greatest memories happened last week. I flew my family across country to attend one of my daughters graduation and pinning ceremonies. I was honored to be invited to stand up----only 15 feet from my daughter---we looked into each other's eyes as we recited the nursing pledge for all in attendance to witness. Yes, it could be updated but it is tradition--meant to be handed down through the generations. In this country where we tear everything down to replace with new, it felt wonderful.

[Nursemiriben, LPN, EMT-P]

I don't have an issue with the content because I believe it's more about the ceremony and tradition than anything else. Definitely not a handmaiden to doctors. ..I work overnights snd haven't seen or spoken to one the entire time I've worked there.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

This morning I got a smile when the nursing friend going to a different school than I've been in the same geographic area posted a short clip of their pinning ceremony. What she posted was the various nursing students reciting this pledge. Yes it's still relevant today.

[TraumaKittyRN]

"With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work,"

Yes I can see how this can be taken the wrong way, but lets face it folks we really DO aid the MD's with their work. I once had a doctor tell me "You are my eyes, my ears and my judgement when I cannot be right here standing by my patient" Wow pretty amazing words to me. Maybe I have the luck to work with an amazing set of doc's but I have never once been made to feel like I am subservient. What I feel that this line from the Pledge is saying is "Yes I will work with the MD's in a manner that is constructive, not destructive." Let's be honest we have seen those awful relationships between some nurses and doc's where it is an "Us vs. Them" mentality.

[thebeccalc, BSN, RN]

I hate the pledge (Nightingale and of Allegiance) because both feel like indoctrination and mindless subservience.

When I was a school teacher, I never made my students stand during the morning pledge recitations (both to Texas, which recently added under God as well, or to the USA) unless it was something they felt personally compelled to do. I myself never stood. I don't have to prove my patriotism to anyone.

During my LVN pinning, we weren't told about the Nightingale pledge recitation until pinning rehearsal, and I was beyond pissed. I recited it because I felt pressured to do so and because I'd already been overruled in terms of venue when the ceremony was held in a church. I had to listen to an invocation and a benediction, standing in a Christian church, and recite something I found personally offensive. Recitation of this pledge is just one more in a multitude of ways southern education continues to skirt the separation of church and state.

[Nature_walker, ASN, BSN, RN]

I just had my pinning last week, and myself and my friend were chosen to lead the pledge for our class. While I'm not Christian, the part about God was still in the one we read, I just omitted the word, but the rest of the pledge was an updated version. I liked that we read it as part of our ceremony as a nod to tradition. I also liked that they invited anyone in the audience who was a nurse, and who wanted to, to recite it with our newly minted class of graduate nurses. :)