The Nursing Pledge (Nightingale Pledge): Full Text and What It Means

Every nursing student in Nigeria eventually stands before an assembly, often at a pinning or induction ceremony, and recites a short oath that has barely changed in over a century. This is the Nightingale Pledge, the closest thing nursing has to the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors. It is named in honor of Florence Nightingale but was actually written by a committee led by nursing pioneer Lystra Gretter for the Farrand Training School for Nurses in Detroit in 1893, with a revision in 1935 that added the line about nurses as “missioners of health.” Below is the exact wording recited by nursing graduates, followed by a breakdown of what each part actually commits you to.

The full text of the Nightingale Pledge

This is the original 1893 wording, which remains the version most widely recited at schools of nursing and pinning ceremonies today, and each point below is worth checking carefully against your own documents and plans before you move any further:

I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly, to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.

Some schools recite the 1935 revision instead, which keeps the same opening but rewords the final sentence to: “With loyalty will I aid the physician in his work, and as a missioner of health, I will dedicate myself to devoted service to human welfare.”

What each part of the pledge actually means

The language is formal and dates back more than a hundred years, so it helps to unpack what each commitment is really asking of you, so read through each item below slowly and tick off the ones that already apply to your own situation:

• “To pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully” is a commitment to personal and professional integrity, both in how you conduct your life generally and in how seriously you take your clinical duties.
• “I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug” is a direct promise around medication safety and substance conduct. In modern terms, this covers everything from refusing to misuse drugs yourself to never knowingly giving a patient something harmful.
• “I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession” commits you to ongoing competence, not settling for the bare minimum, and actively contributing to how nursing as a profession is perceived and practiced.
• “Will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling” is the pledge’s version of patient confidentiality, a principle that has only become more formalized through modern data protection and medical ethics standards.
• “With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in his work” reflects the collaborative, team-based nature of clinical care, specifically the working relationship between nurses and physicians.
• “And devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care” is the pledge’s closing line and arguably its core idea: that patient welfare is the ultimate measure of everything a nurse does.

Why the pledge still matters today

A few things explain why this short oath has survived more than a century largely unchanged, and working through the list below in order will save you from the most common and avoidable setbacks:

• It gives nursing a shared, ceremonial moment of commitment, similar to how new doctors recite a version of the Hippocratic Oath.
• Its core principles, patient welfare, confidentiality, professional competence, and medication safety, remain just as relevant to modern clinical practice as they were in 1893.
• Reciting it collectively at a pinning or induction ceremony creates a sense of shared professional identity among graduating classes.
• It predates and in some ways anticipates formal concepts that are now written into modern nursing codes of conduct and regulatory standards, including those enforced by bodies like the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

How it’s used in Nigerian nursing schools

Most Nigerian schools of nursing incorporate some form of this pledge into their pinning, induction, or graduation ceremonies, often alongside the presentation of the nurse’s cap or pin, a tradition inherited from the broader international nursing education system. While the exact ceremonial format can vary slightly by institution, the core text of the pledge itself has remained remarkably consistent across schools and decades, which is part of why it carries such weight. If your school’s ceremony uses a slightly different wording or an additional localized verse, that is not unusual. Many institutions adapt small parts of the ceremony while keeping the pledge’s core commitments intact.

Final thoughts

The Nightingale Pledge is short enough to memorize in an afternoon but carries commitments that are meant to guide an entire career. Whether you are preparing to recite it at your own pinning ceremony or simply curious about the words behind the tradition, understanding what each line actually asks of you makes the moment mean more than just a memorized recitation.