MT 10:24-33
More than two weeks ago, I was approached by a staff member of the Chaplain's Office and asked if I would be available to preside at the Mass for the Capping, Pinning, and Candle Lighting Ceremony of the School of Nursing. After checking my schedule, I said yes.
Part of my saying yes had to do with honoring the memory of my sister, a nurse. She died almost fourteen years ago. I was never able to attend her capping, pinning, and candle lighting ceremony at UP.
I needed to look up what the ceremony is about. I had heard of capping, pinning, and candle lighting as separate ceremonies, but from students of nursing whom I taught computer literacy when I was still assigned at Ateneo de Zamboanga. But for some reason or other, I could never attend them.
Dean Liza updated me, saying that the ceremonies had been combined. During this pandemic, they could not be conducted. Thus for many of you, these will be a recognition of what you have been up to. It could have been an introduction to what you will be when you graduate.
These rituals have a long tradition. Nurses' caps apparently started simply as a woman's head covering to keep hair neatly tucked away. Deaconesses or nuns who cared for the sick were the first to wear them. It was only during the 1800s that they evolved into today's white caps. It is believed that they were first worn by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris as part of the uniform of one of the first official nursing schools in the world.[1]
Over time, the caps also indicated a nurse's level of training. First-year nursing students wore caps with a simple design. Those in final-year had them in a different shape or adorned with a different color. They were considered an integral part of a nurse's uniform. As a grade school student in the 1960s, I recall that the first-year nursing students not only wore different-looking caps but also candy striper uniforms. If you saw those uniforms today, you would mistake the wearer for a nanny. If you have grandmothers who may have been nurses, you may want to ask them what a candy striper uniform is.
The caps were also used in the workplace to identify their wearers as nurses and differentiate them from others in the hospital.[2]
The pinning ceremony goes back even further to the 12th century. When new monks entered the Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, they were given a Maltese cross badge. The cross signified their vow to serve sick or wounded soldiers. The modern ceremony began in the 1860s when Queen Victoria awarded Florence Nightingale the Red Cross of St. George in recognition of her service as a military nurse during the Crimean War. To share the honor, Florence Nightingale later presented medals of excellence to her brightest students. By 1916, the pinning ceremony had become a way of welcoming nursing school graduates into the nursing profession in the United States. It was no longer given to only the outstanding students but to all the graduates.[3] Given the rigor of the training that nursing students get today, it is appropriate that the pin be given to all nursing graduates.
Your pin shows the Caduceus, the short staff entwined by two serpents, surmounted by wings. It was the symbol of Hermes or Mercury. I hope you still remember your Greek and Roman mythology.
The symbol was originally associated with shady characters. Thanks to the Marvel movies, I'm sure all of you know Thor and Loki. Loki is the God of Mischief; he is also the Norse equivalent of Mercury. The Caduceus, according to Greek mythology, was formed because Mercury threw his staff to break up a fight between two thieves. The thieves turned to snakes, who then entwined themselves irreversibly on the staff.
Fortunately, the snakes on the Caduceus got associated with the snake on the Rod of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. For many of us, whose faith traditions recognize Abraham and Moses (Ibrahim and Musa for our Muslim brothers and sisters), the snake symbolizes destruction and healing. We simply need to refer back to the Book of Numbers 21, 6-9. The snake is a powerful symbol of healing. Because it sheds its skin, it points to longevity and immortality. Its ability to spring from lethargy to rapid activity represents convalescence.[4]
The Caduceus symbol acquired another meaning when the US Army Medical Corps adopted it in 1902 as an administrative emblem which implied neutral and noncombatant status.[5] That means that in a war, you are not to be shot at. But it carries the responsibility and duty that you treat everybody, not only those under whose flag you would be.
If the modern ritual of pinning points back to Florence Nightingale, so does the candlelight ceremony. It symbolizes the nighttime care she gave to wounded soldiers[6]. It was how she earned the nickname 'Lady with the Lamp.'
You will need to remember all of the above when you recite the Florence Nightingale Pledge.
I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping, and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and as a 'missioner of health' I will dedicate myself to devoted service to human welfare.
Perhaps you have begun to wonder when I will start to talk about our Mass readings for today. I suggest that when you reach home today, spend some time reflecting on these passages.
No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
Matthew 10, 24 - 25
If you pass your life in purity and practice your profession faithfully, you will run into people who would challenge your values. I mentioned my sister when I started. We had long conversations about how as a nurse, she needed to:
- tell relatives to get out of a patient's room because they were discussing, arguing about who should inherit what and how much when the patient dies.
- gently remind a cocky medical intern that he may miss a critical detail about the patient when evaluating the interventions needed.
- how as a charge nurse, she needed to remind a colleague to be more careful and detailed about what she wrote on a patient's medical chart because what she had written could have been easily misinterpreted by the next nurse and the attending physicians.
Sometimes when you do good, you will be misunderstood, even hated.
You will need to recall the life of Florence Nightingale. She was born to privilege and was educated at a level not available to women (and many men) of her time. Her father guided her through history, philosophy, and literature. She learned mathematics and languages. She was an statistician; she devised the Coxcomb chart, a visualization that indicated frequency by relative area. Through it, she shocked the government of the Great Britain of her time because she demonstrated the horrendous casualties brought about by disease among the soldiers; more soldiers died from disease than from battle. In addition to English, her mother tongue, she could read and write French, German, Italian, Greek, and Latin. With the first five languages, she could understand almost all the combatants in the Crimean War. Through her knowledge of Latin, she could read physicians' notes; Latin was the language of doctors in that period.
At the age of 16, she felt, from among several calls from God, a particular call from God to reduce human suffering. She felt that nursing was the most suitable route to serve God and humankind. Thus, in spite of her family's opposition, because it was beneath their family's stature for its member to take up nursing, she was able to get trained not only for basic nursing but also in the importance of patient observation, and the value of good hospital organization. Eventually, she opened a training school for nurses. This was during a time of peace.
After the Crimean War started, Florence Nightingale and 38 other women volunteered to be stationed at a battlefield hospital. They went there as a private group because the government then did not know how to run a medical system under wartime conditions. Against the incompetence of the medical staff, they found in the battlefield hospital, she established standards of care such as bathing, clean clothing and dressings, and adequate food. She and her nurses also assisted the soldiers in writing letters to their relatives. They also introduced educational and recreational activities. The mortality rate went down to 2%, far lower than the under-reported rates the British government was feeding the press.[7]
When the war ended, she pushed for reforms in the health system and once more busied herself with the training of nurses.
Some days, you will find your environment toxic. Remember :
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground
without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Matthew 10, 29 - 31
Never let go of your common sense and creativity.
My sister was a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing. She told me that when she and her classmates were reviewing for the Nursing Licensure Examination, they came across a sample question, "What should a nurse always bring during duty in a far-flung barrio?" The so-called correct answer was 'nurse's bag.' My sister mentioned that she and her classmates disagreed with the answer but planned to use it if the question came up in the exam. Their answer was, 'your brain' because you may need to improvise. If forced to give an answer other than 'your brain,' they agreed that another answer was 'umbrella.' It's protection under a hot sun or a sudden downpour. You can also use it to fend off hostile dogs.
Never let go of your common sense and creativity.
Let me suggest that you also pray this nursing student's prayer.[8]
Nursing Student Prayer
Lord, as I go through my studies, help me to understand everything I need to know to become competent in my field. Please give me the grace to manage the challenges that may come my way.
When the workload becomes overwhelming, I trust you to strengthen me and give me the grace to manage. Grant me favor with my instructors, fellow students, and everyone I interact with in the course of learning.
Lord, you are my strength and my hope.
I pray that you use me to encourage and care for the patients put under my care. Fill me with kindness and help me to serve them with diligence.
With you by my side, I know I will complete the training successfully. Fulfill your good purpose in me and use my skills for the benefit of humanity. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
[1] https://www.aspen.edu/altitude/history-of-nurses-cap-nurses-month/
[2] https://www.aspen.edu/altitude/history-of-nurses-cap-nurses-month/
[3] Beyond Graduation, the Nurses Pinning Ceremony: Its History and Significance. https://www.fortis.edu/blog/nursing/beyond-graduation--the-nurses-pinning-ceremony--its-history-and-.html. July 1, 2021
[4] Things you don't learn in medical school: Caduceus https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4439707/
[5] Things you don't learn in medical school: Caduceus https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4439707/
[6] Beyond Graduation, the Nurses Pinning Ceremony: Its History and Significance. https://www.fortis.edu/blog/nursing/beyond-graduation--the-nurses-pinning-ceremony--its-history-and-.html. July 1, 2021
[7] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Florence-Nightingale
[8] https://nursing.com/blog/nurses-prayer/
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