The School of Nursing and Midwifery of Valley View University has organized this year’s Pinning Ceremony for over 150 of its graduating students from three of the University’s campuses. In the records of the University, pinning ceremony for nursing graduands started in December of 2011 when the university graduated its first batch of nursing students.

Since then, the ceremony has been conducted annually to celebrate students.  This year’s event was held on the 13^th of March, 2021 at 4.00 p.m. local time.

Speaking at the event, Mrs. Philomina A. N. Woolley, the Deputy Registrar in charge of operations at the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana called on nurses and midwives to be innovative in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic in order to improve service delivery.

“To propel the future of our healthcare system through effective total nursing and midwifery care, five forces must drive us and these are Virtual Care, Artificial Intelligence, Evidence based Research, transformed workforce and Data Access” Mrs. Woolley said.

Mrs. Woolley also called for the right structures to be put in place in order to accommodate new approaches to nursing and midwifery practice “This is the time for us to concentrate efforts on unlocking the systemic bottlenecks which will improve on our service delivery”.

The Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Daniel Kwame Bediako who chaired the event charged the students to carry with them the spirit of excellence and make a difference in nursing wherever they find themselves.

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On the significance of the ceremony, the Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr. Ninon Amertil explained that the pinning ceremony is a solemn event that symbolizes the commissioning of graduate nurses into the nursing profession. According to her account, the ceremony marks the transition of the nursing trainee from school to professional practice and offers students an opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments of becoming nurses with family, friends, and faculty. The pinning ceremony is also evidence that trainee nurses have completed all clinical and theory courses and are becoming licensed nursing professionals.

Expounding on the historical antecedent of the ceremony, Dr. Stella Appiah, the Head of Department for Nursing hinted that the pinning ceremony is closely tied to an award given to the legendary nurse, Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing who was awarded the Red Cross of St. George in the 1860s for her selfless contribution during the Crimean War. In order to share this honor, Nightingale presented a medal to her excellent students. Since then, the Nightingale School of Nursing designed and awarded a badge with the Maltese Cross to all students as they complete their programmes.

This year’s event which was held at the Seth Laryea Multipurpose Centre was attended by Prof. Emmanuel Bismark Amponsah, Rector Techiman Campus; Dr Martha Duah, the Dean of Students; Dr Ninon Amertil, the Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery; Dr Emmanuel Harrison Takyi, the University Chaplain and Pastor Ebenezer Quaye, the Associate University Chaplain. Also in attendance were Nursing Faculty and student from all three Campuses.