I’m a nurse and this is an outrage. My ceremony never had any mention of god. Maybe in the nurses pledge, but I can’t remember. You don’t need a god for a reason to do good. In fact doing good for the sake of doing good is more noble just so you can get smiles from a sky dad.

As an RN, this certainly didn’t happen at my graduation. Of course that was 25 years ago and in Canada.
I don’t deem this appropriate in any academic setting for a couple of reasons... not all nurses will be christian or religious at all.
I frequently engage with two other atheist nurses on agnostic.

If someone is in medicine (or any of the sciences), it seems counter-intuitive to believe in delusions.
I can't even bring myself to attend most ceremonies and events anymore. I can't take all the religious bullshit, and false-patriotism.

Girl, where you been?? It's been FAR too long.
How the hell are ya??

While everyone has their head down, I like to look around to see who the non-theists are. One day I will get enough courage to wave to them.

I'm actually in school to become an RN. Unfortunately I have five semesters to go but I'll try to get back to you on this after I graduate, haha. But seriously, I completely agree with you, until such time as a religion can meet the burden of proof using the scientific method to verify its claims, religion has no place in any scientific endeavor including medicine.

I am a nurse and an atheist.....I am often perplexed by how many medical professionals are religious ( Christian, Jewish, or Muslim ). I do not recall a heavy religious presence at my ceremony....but that may vary from school to school. I tend to agree with you however, science and religion have no business mixing

If this religious ceremony happened at a public college it was illegal. If certain secular organizations find out about it they will send them a letter to cease this. Then they will sue.

Contact FFRF or Americans United for separation of church and state.

I would complain to the people who are in charge of it so it does not happen again.

My wife's pinning was in a church. I went, smoldered a little but managed to avoid the spontaneous combustion.

I would have been really peeved had I been in attendance. But it does depend on if the school is a religious one, public or not. Many places get away with using public funding for their religious public schools.

Thanks all! I composed a letter and emailed it to the college.

Yup, and I hope you lodged a complaint with the ACLU.

It is time that we discontinue these archaic ceremonial rituals. A new dawn has begun. People are realizing that this stuff just don't make sense. Sorry to hear that you had endure such a ridiculous and thoughtless ceremony.

Real life is a great adjuster of attitudes. It'd be interesting to run into a few of these graduates after they've worked the floors for a few.

Taking advantage of a captive audience?

Probably was a religious college.
I’m in medicine and it didn’t happen at my graduation.
However my entire class was very religious.

I think they do it because no one ever says, "hey you shouldn't be doing this", right then and there. Forget the lawsuit! Speak up when it happens and let them know there are other people present who should not be forced into a religious event!

True

When I went to my friend's nurse pinning ceremony, nothing having to do with religion went on.

If it is a public college, that was against the law. You could contact the Freedom From Religion Foundation and they could explain that to them in a letter.

Your experience is exactly what I go though if I attend any events at a Senior Center in my area. This is the main reason I seldom go to these events. None of that crap is needed!

My experience is very minor compared to this, but I still get really annoyed whenever I go to my local senior center to eat a free lunch several times a month, because right before they eat there is a ritual or tradition of them having a moment of silence before people start getting up and going thru the line to pick up their food. I am told that they used to actually have a prayer from someone instead of the silent moment, but I still don't like it. So while they are doing their moment I just go on about my business and make it clear I am ignoring or boycotting it. BTW, I live in a city that is very conservative, Republican, and Christian.

Traditions .

"Nightingale questioned the goodness of a God who would condemn souls to hell, and was a believer in universal reconciliation – the concept that even those who die without being saved will eventually make it to Heaven." and "Despite her intense personal devotion to Christ, Nightingale believed for much of her life that the pagan and eastern religions had also contained genuine revelation." -- she was too theologically liberal for many people who brag about how she is supposedly on their side.

Agreed, it is ridiculous.
However, if you step back and look at the health industry you'll find that many corporations are or tied at the hype to non-profit religious institutions. This provides the corporation with loopholes to get tax breaks or flat out no taxes in various degrees.

[chausa.org]

It is hypocrisy at it's best and a total con job at it's worst.

Most organized religions are a con. Corporations the world over, may of whom are international across national and financial boundaries. Enable untaxed corporations that own restate, works of art, product lines, intellectual property, services, goods, and heavily fund political groups and legal bribery is still considered a nonprofit institution who's petitioners always have a hand out asking for charity for the most vulnerable.

I will always remember the day my father died and some priest from a small (less than 3000 people) town let slip how much he paid himself as a priest at his small church and how his father before him was a preacher and left him his inheritance.

The priest of a congregation of less than a few 100 people paid himself a small bounty of $136,000 a year and his father left him only $1,875,000 upon his death. You can bet then 40 people in his congregation lost their jobs at the wood mill that priest wasn't going to give them any financial assistance. At best those families would get some meals, a few fund raisers and the priest's empathy for their hardship..

Empathy all the way to the bank, and is vacation in Maui.