Reflecting on – traditions, ceremony, and the formation of bachelor-prepared nurses

ABSTRACT

In this article, we explore the ways that the traditional nursing oath ceremony might serve as a reflective transformative moment for first-year students as they take their first tentative steps in a developmental journey of being and becoming registered nurses. Traditions in professional programs act as a rite of passage and hold the promise of an invitation and a new sense of belonging. This discussion explores the possibilities that exist within reflective transformative learning moments. The discussion unfolds through our eyes as nursing faculty teaching in an undergraduate nursing program. We recall our experience of practicing with first-year nursing students, and discuss the age-old debate: is the focus of teaching delivering content, or the formation of practitioners?

KEYWORDS:

• Tradition
• ceremony
• reflection
• relational nursing
• student nursing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manal M. Alzghoul

Dr. Manal M. Alzghoul is an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing, Lakehead University.  Her research interests focus on areas of Injuries, Immigrant Health, and Nursing Ethics. She is also interested in acute care nursing issues and in exploring strategies that support students in meeting their learning needs and transition from students to newly qualified nurses.

Michelle Spadoni

Dr. Michelle Spadoni is an Associate professor at the School of Nursing, Lakehead University.She adds to a growing field of nurse educators who re-imagine the practice of nursing with undergraduate and graduate students as relational. She is interested in how nurses and patients experience and find meaning in moments of transition; thus interested in the story's people create about transitions, in oral, written and artistic manifestations.