The pinning ceremony can be traced back to the 12th Century when monks were honored for tending to injured crusaders. Fast forward to the 1860’s where Florence Nightingale was distinguished by the Red Cross for her selfless efforts during the Crimean War. Nightingale later took the tradition and presented a medal of excellence to her nursing graduates. However, by 1916 it became standard in the US to pin all nursing students to award them and identify them as new nurses. Pinning is an emotional ceremony for graduate nurses to celebrate the success, the time, dedication, and effort which has been put into our nursing education. We as students have anticipated this ceremony throughout their nursing student career. We are looking forward to crossing this final threshold with our peers; the ones we have journeyed with from the beginning, and those who have returned to us along the way. We have cried together, celebrated as a family, lost sleep, encouraged one another, and endured what we thought would break us. We have a camaraderie like no other. The pinning ceremony is a rite of passage for nursing students. After all the passed exams, written papers, and clinicals it is finally coming true – the day of our pinning ceremony. We wish to celebrate this pivotal moment among our peers, those we hold a kinship with, in a stand alone ceremony. This is in no way meant to diminish the accomplishments of the Radiological Technology program. They too should exclusively be celebrated for their success amongst their classmates.
