On 11 July 2025, St. Benedict's Day, recent nursing graduates from the School of Nursing (Porto) of Universidade Católica Portuguesa to celebrate their Professional Oath in a Thanksgiving Mass presided over by D. Vitorino Soares, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Porto.
In this symbolic and highly significant moment, which is repeated annually, the graduates gave thanks for their academic journey and pledged, under an oath inspired by the original taken by Florence Nightingale, to practise their profession with competence, responsibility and ethics. Before the community and their peers, they pledged to respect the humanistic and scientific values acquired throughout their training and to honour the principles that guide the practice of nursing.
During the ceremony, the hands of the future nurses were blessed, a gesture laden with symbolism, which calls for the careful and compassionate use of hands as an instrument of healing, support and comfort for all those who may need them.
The management of the School of Nursing (Porto) highlighted the importance of this public commitment, thanking the students and their families for their trust in the institution and reaffirming its willingness to continue to accompany the new professionals in this new stage of their lives.
As highlighted by the Director of the School of Nursing (Porto), Paulo Alves, “The science of care requires a commitment to knowledge, rigour and ethics. That is what we affirm today.”
The ceremony was attended by the graduates’ family and friends, representatives of the Rectorate of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, the Boards of the School of Nursing (Porto and Lisbon) and the Faculty of Health Sciences and Nursing, the Portuguese Nurses’ Order, as well as lecturers, staff members and representatives of partner institutions.
