The nursing pinning ceremony is an endcap to a nursing student’s academic journey and a bridge to their nursing career. It honors and celebrates nursing students and all they have accomplished. The pinning ceremony is also a day of celebration for the nursing faculty who have helped the students reach their goals.  

Rooted in a Proud Tradition

The history of nursing pins dates as far back as nearly a thousand years ago, when monks were recognized for caring for ill and injured Crusaders. 

Mid-State’s ceremony for graduating Nursing program students is a version of the more recent tradition stemming from Florence Nightingale, who became the first nurse to receive a pin when she was awarded the Red Cross of St. George for her work in the Crimean War in the 1860s. Nightingale in turn honored outstanding nursing graduates with a medal of excellence. This inspired a tradition in the U.S. to award all graduates with a pin, beginning in 1880 with Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York City. 

By 1916, pinning had become a common practice in schools of nursing throughout the United Kingdom and the United States.

Nursing Pinning Today

Typically, at a modern nursing pinning, the nursing student selects a registered nurse who is a family member, friend, or faculty member to join them on stage to place the nursing pin, welcoming them into the profession of nursing. The nursing graduates also take a vow to always help those who are sick or injured. In Mid-State's nursing pinning ceremony a recorded message from the student is shared with the audience while the graduate is being pinned.

The actual pin used in the nursing pinning ceremony is unique to each school, incorporating a design that symbolizes the school’s beliefs about nursing. The Mid-State pin has both a lamp and a book, the lamp being a traditional symbol of excellence that dates back to Nightingale, also known as the Lady with the Lamp.

The Ceremony's Impact

For graduating nurses and their instructors and mentors, nurse pinning ceremonies are magical events that honor the dedication, resilience, and commitment of those who choose to embark on the path of nursing. Through symbols, rituals, and heartfelt celebrations, these ceremonies mark the beginning of a lifelong journey of caring and healing. 

“Pinning to me is honoring and celebrating our peers for the hard work and dedication to our journey of becoming a nurse. Pinning is the first step in acknowledging our accomplishment and welcoming us into the nursing profession.”
AIDEN GUST
NURSING GRADUATE

"If you were to look at the traditional American culture, we do not have many formal rites of passage. This is exactly what the pinning ceremony means to me. While the graduation is school-wide and inclusive of all programs, our pinning ceremony is an intimate rite of passage from being a student nurse to becoming a professional, honored with the presence of our loved ones and initiated by the nurses we look up to the most."
BRIAN EMERSON
NURSING GRADUATE

Learn more about Mid-State's Nursing program.