The Nursing Pinning Ceremony for Hocking College nursing graduates will take place in the Student Center Multiplex on the Nelsonville Campus on Friday, May 8 at 4 p.m.

Unique to the nursing profession, the pinning ceremony is a symbolic welcoming of newly graduated nurses into the nursing field. The tradition of the nursing pin and the ceremonial pinning originated in the 1860s at the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas Hospital in London.

LPN and RN graduates will be recognized and pinned by a member of the nursing faculty. The graduates will end the ceremony by reciting the International Nursing Pledge. The students will then officially graduate from Hocking College at the School of Health and Safety commencement ceremony at 7 p.m. that evening.

Bonnie Allen Smith Ph.D., R.N., M.S. Dean of the School of Health and Safety and Nursing Program Director said, "We are proud of our nursing graduates and Hocking College's long history of educating some of the best nurses in the United States. A pinning is special, something exclusive to nursing that many graduates will never forget and we're excited to honor them at this ceremony."