A nursing tradition
Butler County Community College's latest class of nursing students will graduate at a pinning ceremony Thursday, a tradition linked to National Nurses Week.
National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6 and ends May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday.
According to the American Nurses Association, these permanent dates enhance planning and position National Nurses Week as an established event.
According to Patricia Annear, BC3's dean of nursing and allied health, the community college tries to honor the profession every year by having its symbolic pinning ceremony during Nurses Week. Annear said, “It's traditional, a lot of nursing programs hold that pinning ceremony as a tribute to the nursing tradition.
Since the program was started in 1973, Annear estimated the community college has pinned between 1,500 and 2,000 nurses.
Annear said, “There is a big nursing shortage. Our nursing students are getting jobs, some are getting two or three offers. Most of our students, upward to 90 percent, will end up in the hospital setting, others are in long-term care facilities.”Annear said the BC3 nursing students needed to fill those empty slots are coming from a combination of places.She said, “We have students coming right out of high school. We have people looking to start a different career, people whose children have grown and are starting their own careers.”And while the nursing profession has evolved in ways beyond the imagining of Nightingale, who came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War in 1854, some things remain the same.Asked what makes a good nurse, Annear said, “The number one characteristic is caring. To do this job well, you have to legitimately care about people.”“The second one is professionalism,” Annear said. “Not to get rattled. At the end of the day you can't be afraid to to go that extra mile.<em>Read the full story in Sunday's Butler Eagle.</em>
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