The Lamar Community College Nursing department celebrated the accomplishments of their graduates with the time-honored tradition of the Nurse Pinning earlier this month.

The Nurse Pinning ceremony is a traditional rite of passage that each nursing student completes before entering the profession.  53 students were pinned including 20 from the Level I (Practical Nursing) and 33 from the Level II (Associate Degree in Nursing/Registered Nurse) programs.

Kalob Amrine, a Level II graduate, was selected by his classmates to speak at the event.  His address highlighted many of the highs and lows of Nursing school, prompting laughs as well as happy tears from his classmates.

Amrine praised his fellow classmates, their drive to succeed and their support of one another.  He noted that they did not choose the Nursing profession for the praise, but because they know that even the smallest actions can make an impact in other people’s lives.

“Many of these once strangers are now my good friends,” he said. “All are my role models.”

He also thanked the faculty and staff for their guidance and persistence in helping each student succeed. 

“Time after time they went out of their way to ensure our well-being both inside the classroom and out,” he said of his instructors.  “Often they would drill key concepts so hard I could hear it in my sleep. They are truly one of a kind and have pushed me immensely.”

Amrine encouraged his fellow classmates and all in attendance to remember that “even the teeniest actions can have profound effects.”

The two classes, Practical Nursing (Level I) and then Registered Nurse (Level II), were then pinned by a registered nurse of their choosing.  Each graduating student prepared remarks ahead of time thanking faculty, classmates, friends and family for their help and guidance through the program.  These remarks were read during their pinning by their classmates.

After their pinning, the students participated in the lighting of the Florence Nightingale Lamp, symbolizing the transfer of knowledge from nursing faculty to nursing students.

The students then joined their family and friends in the audience, where they would recite the Nurses’ Pledge.  All nurses in attendance to invited to join in the recitation.

The Nurse Pinning ceremony concluded with graduates dancing their way out of the gym and into the next step in their careers. 

Congratulations to all 2018 graduates of the Lamar Community College Nursing program!

For more information regarding the Nurse Pinning, call 336.1594 or email nursing@lamarcc.edu.