Seventy-six students from the College of the Canyons nursing program took part in a traditional pinning ceremony marking the completion of each nurse’s training.

Celebrating the accomplishments of newly graduated registered nurses, the pinning ceremony served as a symbolic welcoming for all those entering the nursing profession.

COC nursing department faculty members presented each graduate with a nursing pin before the group collectively recited the Nightingale Pledge – a pledge traditionally taken by new nurses.

“This event represents the culmination of a nursing student’s hard work and dedication, as well as the beginning of a new career in this caring profession,” said Diane Morey, director of the COC nursing program. “We are proud to have the opportunity to honor our graduating RNs in the presence of their family, friends and peers.”

As part of the ceremony, the first 17 students from the COC/Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) to Registered Nurse (RN) program were among the semester’s graduates.

In fall 2012, COC received a Responsive Training Fund grant valued at nearly $240,000 from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office to train LVNs at the hospital to make the transition to become registered nurses.

The collaboration helped to prevent the dismissal of more than 30 LVNs employed at the hospital, while also maintaining the facility’s required RN to patient ratio and providing lab and classroom space for the college’s crowded nursing program.

All participants who have completed the college’s LVN to RN program will now be eligible to pursue licensing as registered nurses.

Currently there are 265 nursing students enrolled at College of the Canyons, with an additional 60 students expected to enter the program in spring 2013.