The best thing to cheer yourself up is to cheer someone else.

We are spiritual beings, having a human experience. We were created to express God's
vision for living. We express God's vision by the way we think, and how we act out our
thoughts.

Holiness is a journey that leads to Godliness. In anything you do do it holistically with all
your heart and soul, Fear God and you will have nothing else to fear.

urrent and future caregivers from QCCs nursing program will light their candles and devote
themselves to the welfare of their patients during Queensborough Community Colleges
traditional candle lighting ceremony.
The ceremony will mark the graduation of nursing students in the Class of 2013.
- See more at: http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/calendar/events/Nurse-Candle-LightingCeremony-Theatre-1-3pm-5-23-2013.html#sthash.LwAJJfBJ.dpuf

We are moving away from what nursing was to what nursing will become, said
graduate Simon Ulabov, who plans to continue his studies at Lehman College. It
will be more oriented toward medical practice and stay true to the fundamental
values of caring, modesty, humility, and putting the patient first.

"I became a midwife because I knew too many women were dying during pregnancy, explains
Huma Awar Sumadi, a midwife in Khaspak, Afghanistan.
Humas is one of many voices that make up a new multimedia exhibition launched today at the
International Confederation of Midwives Congress in Durban, South Africa. profiles midwives
linchpins of an effective reproductive health care system and the incredible work they do to
ensure that women receive quality and dignified care before, during and after childbirth. It is the
latest exhibition in a series developed by White Ribbon Alliance with UNFPA, following and .
Stories of Midwives weaves together a diverse array of narratives from the perspectives of
midwives, midwifery students, mothers, health care workers, community leaders and others
whose lives have been impacted by midwives. Individuals from North America, Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Caribbean have already contributed to the project.

"All pregnant women should have access to skilled care at the time of birth and after delivery.
Without more human resources for maternal health, pregnant women and newborns will continue
to die needlessly. The Stories of Midwives bear witness to this fact," said Babatunde Osotimehin,
UNFPA Executive Director.
The exhibition launch and other events in Durban this week are designed to bring the voices of
midwives and those touched by their care to a global stage. On Saturday, 18 June 2011, 3,000
midwives from around the world marched in Durban in solidarity to call for improvements to
maternal and newborn care globally. Also today, UNFPA and 29 partners launched The State of
the World's Midwifery Report 2011, based on a survey of 58 countries representing 81 million
births a year -- more than half of the world's total. The 2011 International Confederation of
Midwives Triennial Congress wraps up later this week.
Midwives provide care to pregnant women, mothers and newborns in some of the worlds most
difficult conditions. They often lack the support they need to save lives, including essential
medicines, communication and transportation networks and a health system able to provide
emergency obstetric care. This is especially true in rural environments, where the majority of the
worlds births occur.
On average, communities need at least six midwives per 1,000 births. However, new data
released today reveals that in many countries with the highest rates of maternal death, there is
less than one midwife per 1,000 live births.
Read the stories here and hear their messages in this video.
- See more at: http://www.unfpa.org/news/stories-midwives-voicesfield#sthash.XDfnytQB.dpuf

brevejunkie answered 8 years ago

They start with a single flame, and the nurses take turns down the line lighting their
candles from the person next to them, and so on. I believe it has something to do
with Florence Nightengale using a lamp or a candle during the war when she was
taking care of wounded soldiers.

urse graduation ceremonies have been marked by several notable traditions. Some continue to
this day, most notably the "pinning" of the graduate to mark her entry into the ranks of
professional nurses. Other traditions, such as presentation of an old-fashioned starched white
nursing cap to each graduate, have been largely discontinued. Still others continue in a revised or
modernized version, including the "Passing of the Light" ceremony and recitation of the
"Nightingale Pledge."

Other People Are Reading

How to Write a Speech for a Candle Lighting Cermony

How to Plan a Memorable Pinning Ceremony

1. Pinning
o

The pinning ceremony is one of the most enduring and special parts of graduation
ceremonies for nursing students. Nursing schools typically have their own unique
pins, but most pins carry some version of an old oil lamp, symbolizing excellence
in, and dedication to, nursing worldwide. Nurse graduates often dedicate their pin
to someone who has had a special influence on their decision to enter nursing or
otherwise served as a mentor. Students may select a family member or friend to
do the pinning during the ceremony.

Passing the Light

o

Traditional ceremonies included "Passing of the Light," in which one student with
an old-style oil lamp lit a candle held by the next student; each student then lit the
candle of the next. The last student to receive the flame was the graduate with the
highest grades; she became the "Keeper of the Light" until it was time to pass it
on to the next class of nursing graduates. The light of the candle represented

Florence Nightingale's habit of making her rounds at night carrying an oil lamp.
Many nursing schools discontinued this observance in the late 1900's, but some
have since returned this tradition to the ceremony.

Nurse Caps
o

Old photographs of nurses and nursing school graduations prominently featured

the traditional white starched nurse cap. Women were required to wear these at all
times while nursing, along with blue or white dresses and aprons; they received
the caps as part of their graduation from nursing school, often placed directly on
their heads by a school administrator. As uniforms changed to more practical
scrub-style pants and tops, nursing schools accepted more male students and
feminism urged the removal of stereotypical emblems of "women's" professions,
most schools dropped the caps altogether in the 1970's and 1980's.

Nightingale Pledge
o

Often regarded as the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale was an

English nurse who served wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. Appalled by
the conditions and treatment of sick and wounded patients, she began a crusade
for more hygienic, humane nursing practices. She established the first secular
nursing school in 1860 in London. Later nursing educators wrote a version of the
Hippocratic Oath, modified for nurses, and named it after Nightingale. For
decades, a recitation of the "Nightingale Pledge" was a required aspect of nurse
graduation ceremony traditions. Some schools no longer recite it, considering it
sexist and outdated; others have crafted their own modernized versions instead.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/info_8495864_nurse-graduation-ceremonytraditions.html

a small, functional building on the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital on London's South Bank, I
connect my newly acquired stethoscope and listen. Instead of a heartbeat, a well-spoken voice
pulses through the rubber tips clamped in my ears, describing the barely imaginable horrors of
the Crimean War and one woman's role in improving the lot of its victims.
This is the Florence Nightingale Museum, squeezed into a corner of this busy teaching hospital,
opposite the Houses of Parliament. The stethoscopes, which are handed out on entry, are one of
the innovations in a comprehensive 1.4m redevelopment of the museum to mark the centenary
year of her death.
Sceptical at first, I soon realise they are not a gimmick when I plug them into the audio "hot
spot". In the second of three new sections, an area named The Calling which deals with Florence
Nightingale's nursing during the Crimean War, measured tones tell me via the stethoscope

that she estimated her patients averaged three limbs each. It is a gritty, striking detail, adding to
other information in this well presented, thoughtful revamp.
The first section, The Gilded Cage, is in the style of a 19th-century country garden, and
dedicated to Florence Nightingale's early years. Full of memorabilia, from her stuffed pet owl to
poetry notebooks and shell collection, the mazelike "garden" reflects her sense of confinement as
she grew up to be a bright, ambitious woman. This "tyranny of the drawing room", as Florence
Nightingale referred to her cloistered Victorian upper middle-class upbringing, is powerfully
conveyed, as is her unbending refusal to conform to expectations.

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Florence's personal relationships excepting that with her sister Parthenope are less clearly
defined. I was curious about her father, who took the unusual step of teaching his daughters
maths, nurturing a keen grasp of statistics in Florence that would prove very useful in her career.
He also supported her financially later in life. But the snippets I learn are largely grasped from
the social context. Her father, it seems, frequently took refuge in his study when Florence
persisted in her ambition to become a nurse a profession not considered suitable for someone
of her social standing so bringing her genteel family into conflict.
One memorable detail emerges, however, about her most serious suitor (she had several, all of
whom she rejected), the politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes who, unbeknown to the
Nightingales, had a collection of erotica and an interest in the Marquis of Sade. "Now they didn't
teach us that at school," exclaims a colleague, when I share that fact later.

I wonder if such colour is included in the National Curriculum today, which, rightfully, still
covers this remarkable woman's life and legacy. School groups regularly tour the museum,
guided by a costumed "Florence Nightingale", and the new redesign can only enhance its appeal.
Displays are clear, with one star exhibit highlighted in each section, and the collection has some
wonderfully evocative items including a Turkish lantern just like the one she used to light her
night-time walks around the hospital (not a candle, as "the Lady with the Lamp" is often
represented). Then there are the "stethoscope" audio points as well as viewing points (small
peepholes) dotted round at all heights.
The effect is not, however, to turn it into a historical theme park. "We didn't want to turn it into
just a kiddies' museum although we hope we have included a lot more for them than before,
when the museum was just arranged in straight chronological order," explains Kirsteen Nixon,
the museum's collections manager. "We wanted to make sure there was still something for
everyone."
The museum strikes this difficult balance very well and it is finely nuanced at other levels too.
As a first-time visitor, I wondered how critical an approach there would be towards Florence
Nightingale, who even today has an almost saintly reputation. From the outset the museum's
stance is clear, with the introductory panel referring to both her talents and flaws. Her singleminded approach to her vocation bordered on ruthlessness, as you see from a register of her
nurses. Digitally recreated, it allows visitors to browse records of her co-workers and I am
struck by an unbroken sequence of nurses who are dismissed as incompetent.
I also gain a sense that the time was ripe for change to the nursing profession and that Florence
Nightingale sparked a revolution in health care that was waiting to happen (prior to the Crimea,
British women had not served in military hospitals). Newspapers and improved communication
raised public awareness of the conditions of wounded soldiers in Crimea, and the nursing
profession was gradually becoming more respected. But the museum also leaves the impression
that it was more than just a case of her being in the right place at the right time. Her combination
of intellect, fierce sense of vocation (fuelled by her religious faith), and her well-connected
family background, meant perhaps that only Florence Nightingale could have shaped the nursing
profession so effectively in that era.
After nearly two hours absorbed in the displays, I find I am still only at the start of the third and
final section of the museum, Reform and Inspire. This is arranged around a Victorian bed to
represent the later, post-Crimean stage of Florence Nightingale's life when she was bedridden,
and I learn about her prolific letter-writing and campaigning for reform, her irritability, as well as
later, more critical interpretations of her work, such as Lytton Strachey's book Eminent
Victorians.
As I try out an interactive exhibit about hygiene for the nursing profession, "How Clean Are
Your Hands?" (not very, it transpires), I glance at my watch and see that visiting time is almost
up. I leave without learning the best nursing practice for hand washing and hand over my
stethoscope at reception. It will, I am told, have its rubber tips removed and wiped with
antiseptic. Florence Nightingale, no doubt, would have approved.

qtrrre4r
Visitors to London's Florence Nightingale Museum often ask to see the lamp. It seems a
reasonable request: the museum of "the lady with the lamp" should contain the lamp, yet
history
is
rather
more
complicated
than
most
people
believe.
If the purpose of a museum is to convey meaning and knowledge through museum
objects, (1) the lantern on display--for there is no lamp--demands some detailed
explanation. This article attempts to unearth the historical evidence and meanings which
led the museum to display a humble Arab pattern lantern (Figure 1) rather than the
expected
ceremonial
genie
lamp
(Figure
2).
(2)
[FIGURES

1-2

OMITTED]

It is hard to imagine that Florence Nightingale was not familiar with the Arab pattern of
lantern over four years before going to the Barrack Hospital at Uskudar (Scutari) in
Turkey. During her travels in Egypt in 1849/50, Florence Nightingale carried Edward
Lane's account of Egyptian customs with her, quoting it in her letters to her family. (3)
Lane illustrates the common types of domestic lighting used at the time (Figure 3). The
copper and linen candle lanterns (Arabic: fanoos) were typically used for evening visits
to friends, while the wood and glass lamps (Arabic: qindeel) were usually fixed to the
outside of houses. Plain or shielded candles were used indoors.
[FIGURE

OMITTED]

The fanoos may be hand held, set down on a flat surface or suspended from a hook. A
waxed linen concertina, shaped by around 20 wire hoops, protects the flame of a candle
hew in the circular brass or copper base. The metal cover has a heat shield, which may
be moved aside to reveal the candle when the concertina is collapsed (Figure 4), and a
handle with a hook from which the lantern can hang. The ornamental piercing of the
cover allows air to flow to the candle, while the flame is protected from the wind by the
linen concertina. The waxed finish of the linen renders it slightly translucent, an obvious
advantage. The triangular piercings that make up a circular lattice on the cover are the
only evidence of ornamentation and, although simple, it is distinctly Islamic in style.
[FIGURE

OMITTED]

According to Islamic scholar Seyyed Nasr, there is a growing recognition among Islamic
scholars that in the aniconic word of Islamic art, divine unity is reflected in the
commonplace geometrical patterns found, for example, in Islamic architecture and
calligraphy.
(4)
The pierced metal pattern of the lantern cover may also be considered a simple reminder
of same spiritual principles. (4) Nineteenth century examples of the lantern have been
found as far east as modern Pakistan, while a version with thinner metal may still be
bought
in
the
Istanbul
souk
today.
Despite the opacity of the waxed linen, it would appear that the light given off by the
lantern was insufficient to allow Florence Nightingale to examine the hieroglyphs in the
pharaoh's tombs. While deep underground, Florence Nightingale's party preferred

flaming torches, and, on one occasion, even lit a straw fire to illuminate the paintings. (5)
The events of Florence Nightingale's time as Superintendent of Nurses to the British
Army hospitals during the Crimean War are well known. Over the last five years, British
writer Hugh Small has provided a thorough reappraisal of the causes of the soldiers'
mortality, using evidence gathered by Florence Nightingale herself to show that, despite
the best efforts of the nurses, the Barrack Hospital remained a death trap until basic
sanitary measures were taken. (6) Although it is clear that Florence Nightingale's
principal contribution was administrative, and not in the direct nursing of the sick,
according to her own estimates she spent 10 to 12 hours a day for the first six weeks
working on the wards, nursing the sick and wounded as well as supervising the nurses.
(7) The press descriptions of Florence Nightingale during the initial period stereotyped
her as a hands-on nurse throughout the war and she was usually referred to as an "angel
of mercy". The deeds of the romantic heroine were promoted by the popular poems and
songs printed at Seven Dials in central London, and a number of sentimental prints
helped to satisfy the public desire for an antidote to the horrors of war. (8)
It is worth noting that the idea of "the lady with the lamp" was not yet prevalent, although
she had been described thus in the newspapers, by Mr MacDonald, almoner of the Times
Fund and was shown carrying an oil lamp by The Illustrated London News (see above).
The eyewitness images by British painters Jerry Barrett, William Simpson and Anne Ward
Morton steer clear of lamp imagery.
Fanny Margaret Taylor, a nurse at the Barrack Hospital Scutari, published the following
description in her Crimean memoir: "A dim light burned here or there. Miss Nightingale
carried a lantern, which she would set down before she bent over any of the patients." (8)
Florence Nightingale on one occasion related how she carried a lantern while chasing a
rat, but there are no references to lamps in her surviving correspondence. (9) Perhaps
the most telling evidence for the use of specifically Arab lanterns at Uskudar comes from
Florence Nightingale's administrative assistants Charles and Selina Bracebridge, who
had earlier accompanied her to Egypt. The hospital accounts contain a reference to a
quantity of lanterns bought in Constantinople for use at Uskudar and the Bracebridges
brought a lantern back to England as a souvenir. Thirty-two years ago, a letter in The
Times (11) attempted to establish the "Bracebridge lantern", which is now in the National
Army Museum, as the lamp. However this missed the point. History and myth cannot be
made to converge. There is no evidence that Florence Nightingale placed any
significance on the means of lighting she used. Five Arab pattern lanterns with Crimean
associations do survive (and no lamps), but in any case, the idea of the "lady with the
lamp" was not fully articulated until after the Crimean War. The hold which the "lady with
the lamp" has on the popular imagination owes much to 19th century American poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from whose poem Santa Filomena, appear these two
verses: (12)
Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

A Lady with a Lamp shall stand

In the great history of the land,
A noble type of good,
Heroic womanhood.

Longfellow's poem elevated Florence Nightingale to the level of an icon. It brought

together all the strands relevant to his public, in essence the notion of a Christian lady
walking alone at night among the mass of common soldiery, bringing hope, through the
light from the lamp. He compared Florence Nightingale and her practice of nightly rounds
with a saint whose name means "one who loves the moon'". Saint Philomena's
canonisation was imminent during the Crimean War; a point which would not have been
lost on the readership. The real Florence Nightingale, who locked horns with bureaucrats
and politicians, formulated health statistics, designed hospitals and campaigned for
improved public health, on occasion found a use for status as an icon; at other times it
was a burden or a source of guilt.
A further layer of meaning was added to the lamp with the foundation of the Nightingale
Training School in 1860. The oil lamp was already a symbol of learning because it had
enabled reading in the hours of darkness since classical times. Now the lamp came to
represent
nurse
education.
For Florence Nightingale's biographers, the tale of lamps and lanterns has been a source
of confusion, starting with the first and most influential, Sir Edward Cook. (13) Cook
stated rather apologetically that the lamp of fame may have only been a humble "camp
lamp" but Florence Nightingale's relative Rosalind Nash, who abridged Cook, changed
his words to "camp lantern". Florence Nightingale herself might have been amused by
the confusion which has reigned over the lamps and lanterns. As a latitudinarian yet
deeply spiritual Christian with an interest in oriental religion, she might also have
appreciated that the Arab lanterns held an intrinsic spiritual meaning that was untouched
by the idolatry of her own culture.

Life is so precious and valuable. The advice given in this poem is valuable and worth some
serious contemplation.

Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata