2012 Commencement Book - UCLA School of Nursing

Dr. Courtney H. Lyder
Dean and Professor
Florence Nightingale once said that “nursing is an art and if it is to
be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion, as hard a preparation,
as any painter’s or sculptor’s work.”
The 231 graduates here today have done just that—you have spent
your time in school devoted to the preparation and practice of the
art and science of nursing.
Not long ago, nurses relied on instinct, folk medicine, wisdom passed
down from other nurses and the directives of physicians as their
primary tools in care.
Not today. You who are graduating today have amazing tools and
technologies at your fingertips. Some of you will play a key role in the
patient care process and national health policy. Others will become
educators or lead the way in critically important clinical and laboratory
research.
And all of you have been provided with the tools to transform the
nursing vocation in ways that can make an immeasurable impact
on the nation’s health. You have been inculcated with the knowledge
to continually reimagine and redefine the discipline of nursing. This is
your duty; a covenant to lead the profession.
Graduates, today you are entering a new phase in your lives. You have
been given a most remarkable opportunity. You have answered the
call to the most noble profession. You are the next generation of nurse
leaders. Your future has been placed in good hands—your own.