Northwestern to host pinning ceremony for nursing graduates

Nineteen Northwestern College nursing seniors will participate in a pinning ceremony Thursday, May 10, at 6:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel. The students will receive their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree diplomas May 12.

Community members are invited to the pinning ceremony, which will also formally induct 25 sophomores into the B.S.N. program. The underclassmen will receive nursing lamps and certificates of commitment, indicating they intend to practice Christian nursing as defined by “The Code of Christian Nursing Ethics,” authored by Dr. Ruth Daumer, the department’s chairperson. The code is based on the nursing program’s philosophy of nursing as a healing ministry.

Speaker for the event will be Sarah Weins, who is an obstetric nurse at Avera Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell, S.D. A 2010 graduate of Northwestern’s B.S.N. program, Weins has also been a cardiovascular specialty nurse in the ICU at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City as well as a home health care and hospice nurse.

Northwestern’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing. Among last spring’s graduates, 95.2 percent passed their board exams on the first attempt; the national average is 91.4 percent. Placements of last year’s nursing graduates include the Sanford Health System and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital.