COLUMBUS, OH… Mount Carmel College of Nursing, now in its 115th academic year, will confer the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree for the first time in the institution’s history at Commencement. The ceremony is set for noon on Saturday, May 5, 2018, at the Church of the Nazarene, located at 4770 Hoover Road in Grove City, Ohio. This year, there are 223 graduate and undergraduate students who will be participating the graduation weekend activities, along with four members of the first cohort of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program who will be awarded the highest clinical practice degree in the profession of nursing.
“Achieving the distinction of the DNP represents the pinnacle of clinical nursing practice education,” says Jill Kilanowski, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, associate dean for Graduate Nursing Programs at MCCN. “We – the faculty and staff of Mount Carmel – are so proud of our students and celebrate with them the culmination of their hard work,” she adds.
Prior to Commencement, the Master's Blessing and Hooding ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 3, at 777 W. State Street, beginning at 6:30 in the Medical Staff Building at Mount Carmel West. Master of Science, and Doctor of Nursing Practice candidates will be presented with their master’s hoods, which they will wear during Commencement.
Undergraduate Pinning will be on Friday, May 4, at 7 P.M., also at the Church of the Nazarene in Grove City. The tradition of presenting pins to nursing graduates dates back to 1860, when Florence Nightingale wanted graduates of the first professional nursing program in London to stand out and be respected, so she designed a pin for graduates to wear on their uniforms. Today, each nursing institution awards their own uniquely designed pin, which is awarded by faculty to new graduates, symbolizing entry into the field of nursing.
Interim president, Dr. Ann Marie T. Brooks, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, FACHE, FNAP, will be this year’s Commencement speaker. Dr. Brooks is a recognized international leader, consultant and educator in nursing and healthcare with broad strategic and operational experience in health systems, academic health centers and community hospitals in the United States and abroad. She has been team leader with the ANCC Magnet Recognition Hospital for the past 15 years.