Associate Clinical Professor Joan Dugas<\/a><\/strong>, MS, RN was chosen by the class to speak for the faculty. She told of her own journey as a nurse and likened it to a \u201croad trip,\u201d on which\u00a0she has played three different parts: the driver, the backseat driver, and the front seat passenger. Each of these roles occurred at different times during her nursing career and each\u00a0was\u00a0important for her development as a nurse. It is important to make decisions about your career to move it forward; it is also important to stand back and watch someone else drive; finally, it is important to take a break now and then and just observe the scenery. She admonished everyone to keep their blue scrubs and T-shirts for the memories they contain. She advised\u00a0the new nurses: \u201cYou are about to embark on the journey of your life, enjoy the ride!\u201d<\/p>\nCassandra Luce<\/strong>, was chosen by her classmates to be the student speaker. After a resounding greeting from her classmates, she recounted the past four years that went by in a flash. Freshman year was a grind of hard academics especially Anatomy and Organic Chemistry. Sophomore year was getting those blue scrubs that made them very proud of being in the nursing program. Junior year was vindication of how hard the nursing program is with two semesters of tough academic classes and clinicals. The journey was difficult and they were often exhausted physically and mentally. It was hard work, but thanks to the support of classmates and friends, Senior year arrived and the end was in sight. It was \u201cmagical and a lot of fun.\u201dAs she looked back \u201cIt was the time of her life.\u201d Roommates and hall mates became her best friends.\u201d Now she and her classmates are real nurses, going out into health community to make a difference in people\u2019s lives. They will make critical decisions that actually save lives. Thanks to the College of Nursing they are well prepared. Finally, Cassandra thanked her parents, family, faculty and fellow graduates for their support during the past four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The College of Nursing awarded pins and diplomas to 135 new nurses that comprised the Class of 2016 on May 22. Associate Dean Patricia Burbank, DNSc, RN, FAAN presided over the ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Dean Mary C. Sullivan<\/strong>,<\/a> PhD, RN, FAAN started the proceeding by congratulating the class of \u201cexquisite graduates\u201d on their achievement,\u00a0noting that the class “is joining the largest sector of health care, over three million strong.\u201d She emphasized the constant changes in health care today and encouraged the\u00a0new grads to stay\u00a0current, become leaders, and\u00a0take advantage of opportunities and new roles as they arise.<\/p>\n