LATROBE, PA – Saint Vincent College nursing students participated in a Stethoscope Ceremony and Blessing of Hands inside the Fred M. Rogers Center on campus on Thursday, Sept. 10.
The annual event—now in its second year—recognized sophomore students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) program and the Class of 2028 students in the College’s Direct Entry – Master of Science in nursing (DE-MSN) program.
Dr. Helen Burns, Rev. Owen Roth, O.S.B., Inaugural Chair of the Department of Nursing at the College, said the event honors the future nurses as they begin their clinical practice, symbolizing compassion, care and commitment to healing.
Burns shared a story from her days working as a critical care nurse about caring for a male patient who had been hospitalized. Using her stethoscope, Burns realized the patient was having an exacerbation of his chronic pulmonary disease and needed the oxygen to be titrated. After doing so, the patient gained some relief. Later during Burns’ shift, he received a diagnosis: stage 4 lung cancer with two months to live.
“‘She’s my whole world,’” Burns recalled the patient saying as he looked at his sleeping wife in a chair by his bedside. “And the rawness in his voice stopped me in my tracks.”
Burns was a new nurse with no rehearsed response but possessed a strong ability to listen. She listened as the patient told her about his life and the love he had for his wife.
“I realized that my stethoscope, despite being one of my most useful tools, was not my most powerful. The true essence of patient care isn’t in what we diagnose or treat, it’s in the moments we stop and listen,” she said. “May the stethoscope you receive remind you to listen to the silent fears of a patient, the exhausted tone of a colleague, the unspoken joy in a loved one’s embrace. Let it remind you to always lean in, hear deeply, connect wholly and respond with grace.”
Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B., C’87, S’91, PhD, president of Saint Vincent College, noted that while the nursing programs at the College are new, they already have a rich history.
“Fifty years ago, our professors, especially Father Owen Roth, for whom Dr. Burns’ professorship is named, taught nursing here in Latrobe,” Father Paul said.
Fr. Owen joined the College faculty in 1941 and taught embryology, comparative anatomy and histology while also teaching courses at the former Latrobe Hospital School of Nursing.
“If you think back even further in our Benedictine mission, Saint Benedict writes in his Rule, the very first word, the word that Dr. Burns shared with you: to ‘listen.’ For Benedictines, listening is the first and most important thing that we can do,” Father Paul said. “Our Saint Vincent community stands firm on the foundation that nursing is an integral part of who we are, what we do, how we care and how we go forward. You all are an important part of that mission.”
Rt. Rev. Martin de Porres Bartel, O.S.B., S’85, archabbot of Saint Vincent Archabbey and chancellor of Saint Vincent College, blessed the hands of the prospective nurses during the ceremony.
“Your human hands will be the hands of God to those that you touch, and that’s an awesome responsibility, but it’s one that I know you will do well,” he said. “I pray that you will go forth with hearts open and hands ready. May the stethoscope you wear remind you not only to listen for rhythms of life, but to hear the silent cries, the whispered hopes and the sacred stories of those you serve.”
Stethoscopes were distributed by Dr. Stephen Jodis, dean of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing; Dr. Kimberly Whiteman, DE-MSN program director; and Lisa Atkinson, Center for Excellence and Innovation in Nursing director at Saint Vincent College.
Students receiving stethoscopes included Class of 2029 BSN students: Ava Azurin (Aldie, Virginia), Owen Burmeister (North Huntingdon), Cloie Causer (Everson), Lila Clark (Greensburg), Alanna Clay (Latrobe), Cameron Cuppy (Ligonier), Nicholas DiLuca (York), Caitlyn Frost (Roaring Spring), Chase Kushner (Delmont), Camryn Lemley (Carmichaels), Olivia Leone-Thomas (Latrobe), Carmella McDole (Evans City), MaryKatherine New (Bowie, Maryland), Sadie Riley (Harrisburg), Samantha Roolf (New Kensington), Kayla Rumley (Sellersville), Porsche Sartoris (Latrobe), Rylee Sirnic (Latrobe), Samuel Treager (Latrobe), Elijah Weber (Export) and Lena Young (Amity).
And Class of 2028 DE-MSN students: Olivia Barbacci (Mechanicsburg); Anuoluwapo Daramola (Frederick, Maryland); Jennifer Fitchwell (Youngwood); Thomas Kadar (Pittsburgh); Elisha McCoy, C’22 (Latrobe); Jacob Philburn (Connellsville); Edina Prue, C’25 (Greensburg); Frida Sanchez (Greensburg); Olivia Shafer (Greensburg); and Lucca Spatolisano (Irwin).
The students also recited the Saint Vincent College Nursing Pledge of Excellence, a formal promise committing to ethical and professional standards of care. The Pledge was articulated last year using student responses to various in-class prompts.
The ceremony honored the legacy of Alice Longe Cleveland, whose son, Charles Cleveland, C’72, and wife, Joan, in 2025 established an endowment to provide stethoscopes in perpetuity for students in the College’s nursing programs.
Alice Longe Cleveland enjoyed a successful healthcare career as a nurse, and later, as administrator of Renovo Hospital in Clinton County. Her actions in December 1961 attracted national attention when she led the hospital team that saved the lives of two young Ohio hunters who were found nearly frozen in the Pennsylvania woods. Under her guidance, nurses and staff worked in shifts for two days to warm the men with towels. Though both lost toes to frostbite, her intervention prevented further amputations.
At the time, she told the United Press International that the men were responding to treatment, “but it’s with the will of God now.”
The story was later featured in a February 1962 edition of “Life” magazine.
