Sis's Pinning and Graduation

This evening I attended a beautiful ceremony honoring my sister and others who worked hard to earn their RN degree, tomorrow they will officially graduate from the college in caps and gowns, but tonight it was about tradition.  My sister April has worked hard to guide her girls, be there for them, and support her husbands career often at the expense of her own dreams.  As a young mother she gave up her career and educational plans to raise 3 little girls, and created her own business cleaning homes so she could manage her schedule around the girls school schedule and activities.


When the girls were in high school April began to finally think of returning to her dreams and wanted to go back to school.  So after her oldest two finished high school and her youngest started her first year of high school, April finally enrolled in college to begin a degree toward nursing.  Over the past couple of years she has worked hard to balance family life, her schooling, and beginning to work at the hospital after her first year of school was under her belt.


Tonight she finally celebrated all of her hard work with a beautiful ceremony honoring the tradition of RN's dating back to before Florence Nightingale.  Nursing school is difficult. It takes long hours of studying, homework and heart-wrenching clinicals culminating, at minimum, with a 3-hour nursing board exam which April will be taking the 26th of June. Whether for LPN or RN, the pinning ceremony has been a long-held graduation tradition that signifies that you are now a full-fledged nurse. The nurse pinning ceremony dates back 1,000 years ago and began as a Maltese cross, a symbol of Christianity. Over the years, the pin became a coat of arms and eventually has morphed into a design that signifies the school from which you graduated


First Step

1. Nurses enter the ceremony wearing their traditional white uniforms. Even though many nurses nowadays don't wear the hat anymore, during the ceremony they do wear the traditional nurse's hat
2. 
   

   The Pinning Itself

   
   
   As each student's name is called, either the head instructor, a favorite RN or another important member of the faculty pins each student. The pin represents the diploma usually handed out at more traditional graduation ceremonies.
3. 
   

   Candle Lighting

   
   
   
   
   
   
   1. It is common practice for students to each light individual candles representing one of the most well-known nurses, Florence Nightingale. This symbolizes the "passing of the flame" from Nightingale to each nurse, and they recite the nurse's pledge
   2. 
      

      The End

      1. After pinning, candle lighting and recitation of the nurse's pledge, students are officially nurses. They file out still carrying their candles. They wear not only the pin but also the traditional winged medial pin, which signifies they are members of the medical community
      
      
      
      
      
      
      It was very emotional for me to watch my sister go through this ceremony, knowing all the hard work and sacrifices she made to reach this point.  I am so proud of April, the mother she has been to her girls, the example she has been to them and others, and her determination to accomplish something for herself and for her family.  I love you April and am honored that I got to see this special moment in your life.