Caps in the Air

What a shame nurses don’t wear caps anymore. It’s hard to make a statement by throwing scrubs in the air. But the first graduating class of St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing at Moravian College no doubt will find something suitable to send aloft at Commencement.

At noon Friday, the College and St. Luke’s will honor the Class of 2003’s 12 nursing graduates with a luncheon called “A Celebration of Nursing: The First Graduates” in the Priscilla Payne Hurd Academic Complex.

Janet Sipple, dean of the School of Nursing, will chronicle the formation of the program, established in 1998; and Michele August-Brady will talk about those students who entered the untested program the next year.

The personal reflections of three constituents of the nursing program follow: Sara Walkiewicz ’03, Bethlehem; Mr. and Mrs. Donald Spencer, parents of Lauren Spencer ’03, Manahawkin, New Jersey; and Paige Thompson, associate professor in the School of Nursing.

The new nurses also will hear official praise from Carol A. Kuplen, vice president and senior nurse executive at St. Luke’s Hospital, and Curt Keim, dean of academic affairs. Richard A.

Special guest is Margaret L. McClure ’61, a graduate of Moravian’s first, short-lived nursing program, who will receive an honorary doctorate from the College at Commencement.

One of the oddities of nursing accreditation is that a program must graduate a class before its first accreditation is granted. Moravian’s program was approved May 6 by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, an agency charged by the U.S. Department of Education with oversight of nursing-education programs.