Nursing Department Welcomes New Majors
In late February, the Nursing Department held its annual major acceptance ceremony, an event that welcomes sophomore students into the nursing major. During the ceremony, held Friday, Feb. 25, in Wheeler Hall, the college community watched as senior nursing students escorted and introduced the 18 sophomores who have declared their intention to major in nursing.
The sophomores then stood together with candles handed to them by the senior students, while Nursing Chair Susan Reeves '88 officially welcomed and read a slightly altered version of the traditional Florence Nightingale Pledge to the aspiring student nurses:
- You solemnly pledge yourselves before God and presence of this assembly to pass your life in purity and to practice your profession faithfully.
- You will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug.
You will do all in your power to maintain and elevate the standard of your profession and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to your keeping and family affairs coming to your knowledge in the practice of your calling.
With loyalty will you endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote yourself to the welfare of those committed to your care.
Years ago, the event that welcomed students to the nursing profession was called the 'capping ceremony,' according to Reeves. “New nursing students donned white caps with no stripes, signifying their novice status. As the students' education progressed, stripes of different colors and widths were added to the cap to convey progression through the nursing program of study. When students completed their nursing studies, they were awarded their school's pin and a black stripe for their cap to symbolize that they were now full-fledged nurses and ready for practice.”
Today, caps are no longer part of the professional nurse's uniform or image, Reeves explained. “We still find it important to purposefully set aside time to both welcome new nursing students to the study of nursing, and to convey the values of the nursing profession with the reading of the Nightingale Pledge,” she concluded.
Following the nursing chair's remarks, the senior nursing students, soon to graduate and begin their careers, lit the sophomores' candles in a symbolic passing of the torch to their successors.
