L-R: Dean of Nursing Dr. Beverly O’Connell, nursing grad Elaheh Moghaddam and Associate Dean of Nursing (undergraduate) Terri Ashchroft.
Minister of Health welcomes new nursing graduates
The University of Manitoba’s College of Nursing will host the Honourable Sharon Blady, Minister of Health, as she addresses 129 new Nursing graduates on Wednesday, October 21, at a ceremony at the U of M’s Fort Garry Campus. Graduates include students from the U of M’s Fort Garry campus amd University College of the North.
Who: Minister of Health, the Honourable Sharon Blady; President for the College of Registered Nurses, Ms. Patricia Benjaminson; Dean Beverly O’Connell; and Associate Dean Terri Ashcroft
What: College of Nursing Pinning Ceremony
When: Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Where: Multipurpose Room (MPR), 2nd Floor, University Centre, University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus
The annual Pinning Ceremony, organized by the Nursing Students’ Association, is a symbolic welcoming of newly graduated nurses into the profession.
Graduates first recite the University of Manitoba Bachelor of Nursing Pledge. Written in 1893 as the Florence Nightingale Pledge, this affirmation is based on the medical profession’s Hippocratic Oath. The version being recited at this event has been updated by the University of Manitoba for its nursing graduates.
Following the pledge, each new graduate receives an official pin from the College of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, recognizing their initiation into the brotherhood and sisterhood of nurses.
“We’re delighted to welcome our newest graduates into the profession of nursing with this meaningful ceremony,” says Bev O’Connell, Dean of the College of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences. “We know they will play an important role in serving the health care needs of Manitobans with, as they declare in the Nightingale Pledge, a commitment to integrity, patient care, confidentiality and collaboration.”
The modern ceremony is said to date back to the 1860s, when Florence Nightingale was awarded the Red Cross of St. George in recognition for her tireless service to the injured during the Crimean War. To share the honour, she in turn presented a medal of excellence to her brightest graduates.