Nursing grads told to be 'real'

The School of Nursing rounded out a rainy graduation weekend, holding their ceremony Monday evening. The mostly-female Nursing class of 2001 held their ceremony inside the First District Plaza, located at 3'th and Market Streets. One of Penn's nursing giants was on hand to address the graduates and remind them of their essential roles as nurses. Claire Fagin -- nursing professor and dean emerita -- was Interim President of the University between 1993 and 1994, and now works with a variety of health care corporations. She said that, despite the other healthcare jobs she has done in her life, she has always remained a nurse first and foremost. "I am a nurse -- RN -- real nurse," Fagin said. "It's what sets the frame of reference for who I am." According to Fagin, all Nursing graduates, no matter what career they pursue, should always think of themselves primarily as nurses. "The way you introduce yourselves and keep referring to yourselves always has to be that you are a nurse," Fagin said. "A reference to nursing and to nurses must be present in whatever you tell people that you do," she added. Fagin feels one of the biggest problems facing healthcare today is the tendency to put money ahead of patients. She also feels nurses are in a good position to tackle this problem. "Cost over care cannot continue," Fagin warned the audience. "Nurses are the largest group in contact with the public," she added. "We can be part of the solution provided we have the guts, the passion and the wisdom." Fagin's advice was to be active and outspoken about what should be happening in the healthcare industry. "Our future requires that we voice our opinions in the right places. People are sympathetic to nurses," she said. Fagin told the graduates to always stick together and to "support your colleagues." She also pointed out that a nurse's list of contacts can be essential. And good contacts are what set Penn graduates apart from those in other nursing programs. "People wonder why should you go to an Ivy League school?" Fagin said. She answered by pointing out the people students can connect with at Penn and in the Ivy League. But despite everything, Fagin's last bit of advice was to be happy. "Whatever you choose to do, make sure you don't stay too long in work you don't enjoy," she said.

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