Cheered on by family, friends, and faculty, the Egan School’s newest alumni commemorated their achievements and launched the next stage of their nursing journey during the event.
Twenty seniors in the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies at Fairfield University’s Austin Campus celebrated the completion of their nursing education at a pinning ceremony on May 14. The cohort of second-degree nursing students is the fourth class to graduate from the expansion campus, launched three years ago with the goal of impacting healthcare workforce shortages across the Lone Star State and beyond.
What is a Nursing Pin?
The nursing pin is one of the profession’s oldest traditions and flows from Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Queen Victoria awarded Nightingale the Royal Red Cross for her service during the Crimean War. Inspired by the honor, Nightingale began presenting badges of excellence to her exceptional nursing students, a practice that eventually spread to nursing schools across the United States and England.
Designed 50 years ago by Fairfield’s first nursing graduates, the Egan School nursing pin features a gold University seal overlaid with a triangle bearing the words Knowledge, Understanding, and Communication.
Words of Inspiration
The keynote speaker at the event was Elaina Diaz, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, CMSRN, director of nursing professional development for the Texas Nurses Association. Board certified in nursing professional development and a certified medical surgical registered nurse, Diaz oversees statewide initiatives to foster nurses’ professional growth, continuing education, and excellence.
In her moving address to graduates of the Accelerated Second Degree Nursing (ASDNU) program, Diaz reflected on the significance of the day as well as the perseverance demonstrated and the transformation experienced by students along the journey.
“Somewhere between the textbooks, the clinicals, the exhaustion, and the moments you thought you could not keep going, something changed,” she said.
“You did not just learn how to care for patients, but you became someone capable of carrying people through some of the hardest moments of their lives. Today is not simply the end of nursing school; today is the beginning of your life as a nurse.”
