The Bakersfield College nursing department congratulated the graduating class of Fall 2020 with the special virtual pinning ceremony that took place on March 20. 

The ceremony began with BC Nursing Professor, Jaime Mendiola who was selected on behalf of the graduating class of 2020 to give a few words along with other guest speakers throughout the ceremony. 

“Nursing programs across the United States, have their unique pin with its color and its own picture, For Bakersfield College, it has a shield on it, a shield representing protection for ourselves protection for our patients in our profession, we take that very seriously, protecting our patients in every aspect that we can patient safety is paramount for nursing” Mendiola explained. Another guest speaker was Nursing Department Chair and Professor Alisha Loken.

“We are so proud of you, and we’re so excited to have you guys joining us in our profession as registered nurses,” Loken said. 

Loken said she had the pleasure of teaching and working with these students in their third semester at BC. For those who do not know, in early last year, the BC Nursing program was put on pause because at that point hospitals would not let the students into their hospitals to complete their training. “We had a couple of facilities that kind of stood up and said we’ll take everyone, Kern Medical said, I’ll take every student that you can give us. We’ll get every single one of them because they knew that we were going to need nurses out in the community,” said Loken. 

The nursing students were contacted and told that they could volunteer to complete their clinical hours. Loken said how “100% of them said yes. 100% of the students volunteered to put themselves at risk. I was more afraid for the students because I had students who were pregnant, we had a student who was waiting for a kidney transplant.” Loken continued to say even though “to me, that is the mark of a real nurse and someone who moves towards danger or someone who moves towards the risk with the hopes of helping others. And this group of students did that.”

“A big thank you to our college president Sonya Christian, and all of our community partners who allowed us to do their clinical program, our students clinicals in all of their sites inpatient and outpatient all over town, we would have never been able to get through this semester without that, so thank you for that,” said Mendiola. At the end of the pinning ceremony, the Nightingale Pledge was said and was recited by Professor Stacy Beeney.

The graduating class of 2020 had a few gifts that they presented to the Nursing Program for faculty and staff. Assistant Nursing Director Debra Kennedy received them. The RN Class President Andrew Dutton and one of the committee chairs, Brenda Padilla presented the 2020 RN graduating class photo to Professor Kennedy who then after gave the Nurses’ Prayer.

There were a total of 63 RN graduates who received their pins and were honored for their resilience, who are now helping the community working within medical facilities and hospitals.