Setting aside the late night study sessions, care plans, patient packets and reading chapter upon chapter of theory, this year’s graduating nursing class of 2010 has had their focus on more important things as of late: loving and supporting one another.

Every nursing class that labors its way through the department of Nursing has made some sort of name for itself. Though they could be well known for their large hearts that desire to serve in a variety of fields of nursing ranging from pediatrics and burns to oncology and mental health, it won’t be all they are known for. It would not be inaccurate for staff and faculty to think back on the nursing class of 2010 as the one which has literally prayed its way through the program.

Any given day, prayer before class for one another can easily last thirty minutes. It is not just the love of God toward their patients that makes them unique; it is the love of God toward one another.

They have loved and supported one another. Students have gone through a cancer diagnoses and treatment, grandparents becoming ill, grandparents’ healing, a triplet pregnancy, weddings, surgeries, family tragedy and difficulty within the church. This is to name only some of the most recent events that have taken place in their lives.

This year’s class is currently gearing up for its Pinning Ceremony, which traditionally has been the ushering in of a nursing student by a registered nurse to acknowledge them as a fellow colleague. It is an academically earned honor, and for this year’s class, an answer to much prayer that all 31 students would be pinned (be it in a hospital bed, from home, or on stage) to acknowledge their completion.

Though all will not be present at graduation (or Pinning), if God does choose to sustain each individual such that this May is His appointed time for all to graduate with our Bachelor of Science in nursing, it will be a time of great celebration. You are invited to join in this celebration that will be held Thursday evening, May 27, in Sutherland auditorium at 7 p.m..

So, come celebrate with the graduating nursing class of 2010 what God has done in their lives to bring them through five years of hard work by His grace and love. And, rest assured that should they be your nurses someday, you will be very well taken care of and coated in prayer.