Caring for an elderly woman as she takes her last breath. Tending to the health care needs of homeless people. Witnessing “the joy and the wonderment” of the birth of a newborn.
Those are just a few of the experiences graduates of the URI College of Nursing have already experienced as they embark on their future careers. Dean Barbara Wolfe detailed the experience and success the students have had in their years at the university before conferring 297 degrees during the college’s commencement Sunday afternoon.
“These are not every-day experiences of the average college student,” Wolfe said. “But they are experiences unique to those pursuing the profession of nursing. And they require a great deal of maturity and sound judgement, of which these students have shown. These students have worked hard to be here today. Class of 2018, you are to be commended.”
Graduate Shannon McIsaac urged her fellow graduates to carve their own path in the world as she delivered the student commencement address. Don’t worry if you don’t have a job lined up just yet, she said. There is no longer a syllabus to keep up with, so graduates have the opportunity to take their time and “make your time worth something.”
“What happens next? For the first time in our nursing career, the answer to that question falls on us,” McIsaac said. “We have the power to decide what happens next, and how fast or how slow we choose to move on in that journey. Following the natural desire we as nurses have to serve our patients becomes the only thing that matters. What happens next is ultimately up to us. After today, you call the shots. And you literally give the shots.”
Faculty speaker Katherine Paquette advised the graduates to “be lifelong learners” and to practice health care with humility. She addressed “the phenomenon of hope,” and had previously asked graduating students to to write for her what they hope as they leave URI to pursue their careers.
“I hope I don’t kill anyone, one student wrote,” Paquette said, noting she received several variations of that sentiment. “I realized the graduates are not talking just about professional liability, but about patient safety.”
Check out a gallery of the ceremony below:
