Lean on each other, AACN chief urges December class
Remember the zebras, Deborah Trautman, PhD, RN, urged graduates at December’s Degree Completion Ceremony at Shriver Hall on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus.
Trautman, PhD, RN, executive director of the Center for Health Policy and Healthcare Transformation at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, explained that zebras in the wild cannot lie down to rest for fear of predators. Rather, they place their weary heads on the back of a comrade. As brand-new Hopkins nurses, Trautman said, classmates should likewise seek each other out for mutual support and mentoring, citing a favorite African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Graduate Kelly Lynn Hann spoke of her father’s mantra, offered each time she headed off for volleyball practice, for nursing school, or for an address to a room filled with her peers: “Run fast, jump high.” The 17-month program, she said, has been “like a crazy, mad, 100-year dash.”
“We finished this race and we’ve made record time,” Hahn said, adding: “Run fast, jump high … and go save some lives!”
