Nursing grad follows tradition

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MARQUETTE - Spring means flowers, warmer temperatures and graduation ceremonies. As director of Northern Michigan University's School of Nursing, Kerri Schuiling has seen her fair share of graduates, but this year is different.

In Friday's traditional pinning ceremony for students graduating from the nursing program, Schuiling pinned her own daughter, Sarah Cummiskey, who represents the fourth generation of her family to become a nurse.

"It's kind of hard to put into words,"Schuiling said. "It's hugely meaningful. Sarah's carrying on what has become a family tradition."

Not only did she graduate from her mother's department at the same school her mother attended, but Cummiskey was pinned with the same pin her mother received when she graduated in 1973.

"It's like a family heirloom being passed down," Cummiskey said of her pin.

With her studies and graduation, Cummiskey is following in the footsteps of her mother, her maternal great-aunt and great-grandmother.

Schuiling said that stories of working with patients told by her grandmother and aunt inspired her to attend NMU for nursing, and for both mother and daughter, helping patients is the real appeal.

"I took an anatomy and physiology class my senior year of high school. I thought I was going to be a surgeon," Cummiskey said.

Then, during a hands on activity with an actual patient, something happened to change her mind.

"One of the patients asked me to hold their hand and that was it for me," she said, adding that nursing means helping with all aspects of patient care instead of just the immediate needs of the body.

"It's not just helping the person, but the family," Cummiskey said.
Although they both love working with patients, Schuiling and Cummiskey have approached the field of nursing from different angles.

Having been certified as a midwife and holding a masters in maternity nursing, Schuiling has focused her career on women's health. Cummiskey, on the other hand, will be starting as a critical care intern in the Intensive Care Unit at Marquette General Hospital.

"That's what's cool about nursing, when you realize the variety of opportunities," Schuiling said.

Each nursing school has its own pin design, with NMU's dating back to 1972. The pin is an outline of the Upper Peninsula with a piece of hematite set where Marquette would be. Lines radiate out from Marquette, symbolizing how NMU nursing students go out into the world.

The pinning ceremony itself was once the final in a series of ceremonies during which nursing students would receive parts of their uniforms, including the nurse's cap.

Forty-eight students received their bachelor of science degrees at Friday's pinning ceremony, with a separate ceremony following for the LPN graduates.

The commencement festivities continue today with the university's commencement ceremony, in which the graduating nursing students will also take part.