Ceremony welcomes students to the nursing profession

The School of Nursing hosted a Welcome to the Nursing Profession - Gold-AACN Oath Ceremony for Nursing Sept. 10 at Coffman Theater to celebrate Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Nursing students’ entry into the nursing profession.

“This ceremony acknowledges your commitment to build your intellect - scientific knowledge, clinical acumen, and problem-solving capabilities - along with your heart - passion and ability to provide unparalleled holistic patient, family, community, and planetary care. It is an affirmation of our central obligation to action, to caring,” said Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAMIA, FNAP.

Maria Raines, MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, vice president and chief nursing officer for University of Minnesota Medical Center & Masonic Children’s Hospital, delivered the keynote. “Nurses are here to become change agents. We are here to lead the way as we look at how we advance practice, how we look at health equity, planetary health, and we have to take the front seat,” said Raines. “I see all of you as those people that are going to be leading us into that future.”

Christine Mueller, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN, senior executive associate dean for academic programs, spoke about the three documents that frame the profession, the Nursing’s Social Policy Statement, Code of Ethics for Nurses, and Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice as well as the 12 competencies that faculty identified as core to the nursing profession, including person-center care, leadership, evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning.

“While nursing has been identified as the most trusted profession for the 19th year in a row, for almost two years nurses and nursing have been front and center,” said Mueller. “Nurses are leading public health interventions to prevent and contain the COVID-19 virus through vaccinations. They have counseled, comforted and reassured those that have had symptoms. They have demonstrated their super hero powers at the bedside of those hospitalized with the virus, and they steadfastly ensured that patients in hospitals and senior living facilities could communicate and in many cases, say their good-byes to their families.”

She announced that the school is providing all nursing students with a membership to the National Student Nurses Association, which is dedicated to fostering the professional development of nursing students. In addition, students also received a bookmark with the 12 competencies to serve as a regular reminder of them.

BSN students Lauren Berlin, Minnesota Student Nurses Association regional director, and Anna Robinson, Minnesota Student Nursing Board president, and MN student Ashante Alford, BA, Graduate Nursing Student Council vice president, spoke on behalf of students.

Sophomore students in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and first-year Master of Nursing students read a commitment to the profession. It stated, in part, “As a future professional nurse dedicated to providing the highest quality care and service, I am committed to act in a compassionate and trustworthy manner in all aspects of my care to patients, families and communities. I commit to apply knowledge, experience and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal outcomes for those in my care.”