What's so great about a pinning ceremony?

[SummitRN]

I'm not one for pomp and circumstance, but I must go along to apease the family. They want to watch me walk.

I haven't mentioned to them the pinning ceremony, as I had no intention of making everyone spend more time in the audience watching me. Many nurses and classmates are appaled that I'd not go to pinning, or that I'd choose commencment over pinning. Then, I got to thinking, I don't really know what pinning is about or what it involves.

What is so great about the pinning ceremony? What happens?

About all I've heard is that there are candels, someone of your choice pins a pin on you, and you wear your graduation robes.

[Music in My Heart]

But, pinning is the last thing for nurses that has survived

Not to me... I'd say either your license... or your first paycheck. Just because one gets pinned doesn't mean one will get either of the other two -- without which, the pin is just a trinket... like class ring.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

It's a non-optional social convention.

Oh, thank you for this. I needed a Sheldon quote for the day. Love it!!!

[CordaeP]

So can you not attend both graduation and pinning?

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

We bought our own pins. You could get the cheapo version, the 10k, or the 14k. You only wear them on a lapel of a jacket; not on a scrub suit, so I never get to wear mine.

[13thSpade]

so can you not attend both graduation and pinning?

you can do both, or neither, its up to you. i'm skipping the graduation and just attending the pinning. if it was up to me, i would prefer to skip both, but the pinning is just as much for the faculty, parents/family, and organization as it is for the students. i'm going because i know it would please my instructor, manager, and family.

it may be a sappy, archaic ceremony, but it makes your teachers and family proud, don't miss it!

[CP2013]

I am hoping to skip both, as neither are of any significance to me, and in my opinion are just the schools way of earning more money off of me.

I would have to purchase cap & gown for graduation, plus white uniforms, a cap, and a pin, along with supplying fundraising time to supply the food for the students and family attending the event. This is a lot of money after spending two years in school not working. Just my two cents. I don't think it's worth the effort. Especially when I would have only 1-2 guests, and others would have 10-20 they want to invite and have to narrow down their lists because there isn't enough space.

I think pinning should be done away with, or at the very least OPTIONAL for students who wish to not participate. I don't feel some sense of camaraderie with my fellow students because of a ceremony, but because we just went through all this torture of school, and made it through an incredibly difficult time together.

My parents are the only family I have, and with two ailing parents, I'd rather be able to show them my RN license number and take them out to dinner and thank them for all they have done with my first RN paycheck instead of wasting time with pinning and graduation. Or heck, maybe I send them on a luxury vacation to show them how much I appreciate their sacrifice with putting me through school!

[Luckyyou, BSN, RN]

Pinning was optional. Had to buy our own pins (and they were EXPENSIVE). I went to commencement instead, as ours was nursing only. Aside from the whole thing seeming kind of outdated to me and being unimportant to my family, including my mom who is a nurse, the ceremony was held in a church, so I took a pass. Would have skipped the commencement ceremony too, but my parents did really want to attend that one.

[Bojamashell]

It's a long ways off, but I plan to attend both the commencement ceremony and the pinning ceremony. If I had to choose between the two, I'd probably just choose the pinning ceremony. But since I didn't have a high school graduation, I'll walk at the commencement.

[OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN]

I graduate next semester and I sure as hell am going to both my ceremonies. Just thinking of walking down in my cap and gown is what helps me get through this last year. I don't know maybe it's silly but to me I can't wait.

[Ginnym1981]

I graduate in June but I recently volunteered to help our another cohort at their pinning.

Now, I HATE to have any extra attention so I was mostly against pinning in the beginning but after volunteering, I'm really excited to go.

What I want to also mention is that we (as a cohort) are responsible for paying for our pinning (the place, drinks, programs, pins etc.) So we have the power to make it what we want.

This is great but also another added expense which was another reason I didn't want to do it.

The one I attended was held at our main campus in a large theatre ($400 to rent), just bottled water for guests to drink during and handmade programs with a photo of the cohort glued on the front. They also read the nightingale prayer and had a fun slide show to music.

Several teachers got up and spoke, congratulating the cohort and adding in several jokes to make it fun for everyone.

They awarded a few students with honors and then called each student up one by one, where while they were walking across the stage to get pinned by a loved one, the teacher read a speech that the student wrote themselves, thanking their supporters personally. (THIS IS THE PART THAT SOLD ME!)

Being able to publicly thank my friends, family, cohort and instructors is really something I want to do. To me, this portion alone is worth the extra costs, uncomfortable feeling of having everyones eyes on me and in a sense, makes the pinning about THEM and not just me anymore.

Without them, I would have NEVER been in the position to graduate so its really special to show them just how important they were (and still are) to me in my journey.

Also, the pinning lasted about an hour or so (a full cohort is 32 students but not everyone makes it or attends pinning), whereas a full school graduation at my school could be about 4 hours and less personable so I'm sure my family would much rather watch the pinning vs. commencement. (But this argument only works if you're wanting to do one or the other and not both)

**Hopefully this post makes sense. I'm too lazy to reread it for grammatical errors **

[Annachu512, BSN, RN]

I'm looking forward to both my graduation and pinning ceremonies. After being in and out of college for the better part of 13 years, I will be so happy to don those gowns and walk with my head held high. My mom is looking forward to it and I'm sure I'll be loving the fact that my daughter will be there :) Only 15 months and counting!

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Pinning is a celebration of your accomplishments through nursing school, and you go through so much...it's that transition from being a nursing student to having your nursing degree and (soon) your nursing license. I loved my pinning ceremony. It's just the graduating class for that year, not the entire school. There were speeches made by nursing faculty. We did not wear caps & gowns. I wore a dress. Everyone got pinned by a nursing faculty member and the one who was pinning at mine happened to be my favorite instructor in all of nursing school :) I don' t know, I just loved my pinning ceremony. It made me feel very proud of all of my achievements!