QCC holds graduation for 58 nurses

In a ceremony that originated in the 1860’s at the Nightingale School of Nursing at St. Thomas Hospital in London, 58 new registered nurses participated in their candlelight nursing graduation ceremony at the Queensborough Community College (QCC).
In addition to receiving a pin, the graduates, all dressed in white and each sporting a blood-red carnation, carried a candle lamp, which symbolized the care and devotion nurses administer to the sick and injured in the practice of nursing. The candles were lit in the darkened auditorium as a tribute to these traditions.
Although the ceremony which took place at the QCC Performing Arts Center Theater, 222-05 56th Avenue in Bayside, on Tuesday, January 9, was a serious event, there were moments of levity and joy, such as when Sister Alice Danaher gave the Invocation by saying that nurses were angels in comfortable shoes.
QCC has one of the largest clinical nursing programs in the Metropolitan area, and is the main educator of registered nurses in Queens. With more than 6,000 nursing graduates since 1967, the program continues to be essential in helping alleviate the current nursing shortage.
Featured speaker, Queensborough President Dr. Eduardo J. Mart’, said that while the twentieth century was the century of technology, the twenty-first century would be the century of biology and predicted that the role and importance of nurses would only increase.
“Health care in the future will be amazing and will test your ethical values,” he said.
Other speakers, many of whom emphasized the humanity and need for the highest standards of ethical conduct for nurses included Maureen Wallace, chairperson of the Nursing Department, and Nursing professor Cheryl Spencer. Also in attendance were Charlene Prounis, managing partner at Flashpoint Medica, who graduated from the Queensborough Nursing Program in 1976 and who was named as an honoree at this year’s Partners for Progress Gala. Cheryle Levine, Class of 1975, and President of the QQC Alumni Association also addressed to the new graduates.