Twenty-two new nursing students in the WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus received their first professional white lab coats in a ceremony at WVU Potomac State College Tuesday night.
The ceremony is held to mark the start of the educational journey and the careers of nursing students at Potomac State College. Each year, the students receive coats at the start of their sophomore year, after completing a first year of pre-nursing which includes academic and required courses at PSC.
“Our sophomores started nursing classes on August 18 with Orientation and have already been working extremely hard, learning to balance the many responsibilities of being a student nurse. They are dedicated, knowledgeable, and eager to learn,” said Dr. Matthew Hottle, Department Chairperson and Assistant Professor for the WVU School of Nursing: Keyser campus. “They are disciplined in their studies and their nursing practice in the skills lab, all in preparation for their clinical rotations to begin later this month. We celebrate and welcome them into the BSN program as they begin their nursing education journey. We signify the start of this journey through the presenting of their white coat.”
Hottle said the ceremony is special as the campus officially welcomes the newest students to the School of Nursing.
“Some of you in the audience who are nurses may recall that as nursing students, it was tradition to receive a nursing cap that you wore proudly while you were a student or upon finishing your studies. However, nursing caps are now largely a tradition of the past and are not as practical in today’s high-tech healthcare environment,” he said. “But nurses continue to have a special bond to each other that is developed through the course of nursing study. We welcome our newest students – our future nurses. Instead of receiving a nursing cap, students don their white coat and sign the WVU School of Nursing Pledge Book to symbolize their commitment to professionalism in their nursing studies and practice. They receive a School of Nursing writing pen as a reminder of this commitment and use it to sign the book.”
This was the seventh annual White Coat Ceremony on the PSC campus. In 2019, the WVU School of Nursing: Keyser Campus received the Arnold P. Gold Foundation-American Association of Colleges of Nursing grant for this ceremony. Since then, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation provides a Humanism Lapel Pin to each nursing student to remind them of the significance of their entry into the healthcare profession and the importance of humanism in their nursing practice.
“It serves as a symbol of compassion and empathy,” said Hottle. “We thank them for providing this pin to each student as a reminder of this. Our nursing students are taking part in a rite of passage that began in 1993 at Columbia University, through the work of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation.”
Why did Dr. Arnold Gold believe it was essential to begin clinical training for nurses with an official ceremony 33 years ago? Gold, who was a professor at Columbia University for 58 years, was a world-renowned pediatric neurologist with a giant heart, said Hottle during the ceremony.
“He loved his patients, his students, his residents, and his colleagues. In the 1980s, when technological advances allowed healthcare professionals to diagnose diseases in new and faster ways, and to employ new treatments, Dr. Gold both celebrated the progress and became increasingly worried,” said Hottle. “He worried that the connection between patients and those who cared for them was fraying. It was being diminished. Falling away. The human connection – the careful listening, the paying attention to patients and their families – remained essential, he believed, no matter how much machines could tell us.”
Hottle explained that as a professor, Dr. Gold watched students at graduation pledge an oath to compassionate patient care. But by then, Arnold thought, it was too late.
“So he, with the help of his colleagues, his wife, Sandra Gold, and the staff of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, started a new ceremony: The White Coat Ceremony,” said Hottle. “The White Coat Ceremony emphasizes compassion and the human connection from the very beginning of clinical training.”
In January 2018, Gold died at the age of 92. Still, the formal ceremony he founded continues to be performed at nearly every medical school in America, 260 nursing schools, and many other health professions schools around the globe.
“Dr. Gold would say: ‘Listen, listen to your patients. See them as human beings. Pay attention to what they are telling you. Don’t be afraid to care.’ The connections you make with your colleagues, your patients, and your patients’ families are crucial for them and for you,” said Hottle.
Phil Douthitt, Dean of Academic Affairs, WVU Potomac State College, also addressed the 22 new nursing students. He recounted his personal experience, as members of his own family and extended family are in the nursing profession, several of whom began their careers at PSC.
“So I know firsthand the dedication, the commitment, and the sacrifice that goes into becoming a nurse and entering this nursing program,” he said. “And I know the care and compassion that goes into becoming a nurse and entering the nursing profession.”
Dr. Diana Niland, lab coordinator, clinical instructor, and course coordinator, also took a moment to speak at the White Coat ceremony.
“The history of nursing is an important foundation as to how we shape our future. This ceremony is a special time for us to recognize our sophomore nursing students. They sit here before us full of excitement and fear of the future for what lies ahead of them. The journey they have embarked upon is not one to be taken lightly, and the responsibility and accountability is immense,” she said.
Niland then addressed the sophomores directly.
“Dear students, you sit here today because you have met the academic standards for the program. You want to sit here today because you possess the caring and compassion it takes to become a professional nurse; that deserves great praise and recognition,” she said. “On this nursing school journey, you will have ups and downs and will laugh and cry together. Work as a team and be supportive of one another, through the thick and thin, the good and the challenging. We are committed to helping you along your path toward a future of success in the nursing profession.”
“Faculty and staff on this campus and throughout the School of Nursing are here to support you along your nursing journey; we will be your role models and guide you through your learning experiences toward professional nursing,” Niland said. “We feel privileged to work with you to help you learn the science of nursing and watch you grow as you artfully apply your learning in the care you provide to patients.”
“Dear students, no matter how challenging your nursing studies may be, remember why it was you chose nursing and keep that goal in sight,” Hottle said. “You are all fully capable of succeeding in this program and going on to become registered professional nurses. You will join the thousands of nurses who have graduated from West Virginia University School of Nursing over the past 60 years and have gone on to make tremendous differences in the lives of people in West Virginia, in our region, across the country, and around the world. Your struggles, hard work, patience, dedication, and determination will be worth the reward when you walk across the stage in May 2029 and move forward into your nursing career. Everyone here tonight will play a key role in your success; we are all here to support you along every step of the way.”
Also in attendance for the ceremony were: Dr. Kasey Beckman-Sirk, course coordinator; Dr. Heather Dignan, course coordinator, instructor, and clinical instructor; Jeanette Jernell, course coordinator, instructor, and clinical instructor; Mary Keister, LPN to BSN program track coordinator; course coordinator and instructor; Anna Kephart, LPN to BSN program assistant; Brittany Knox, instructor and clinical instructor; Dr. Mary Beth McCloud, course coordinator and instructor; Allison McCracken course coordinator and instructor; Karen McRobie, Traditional BSN program assistant; Christy Metts, clinical instructor; Andrea Schrock, instructor; Dr. Tina Antill Keener, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs, WVU School of Nursing; Amanda Kitzmiller, Director of Undergraduate Programs; Christi Miser, Assistant Director of BSN Programs; and Dr. Jerry Wallace, President, WVU Potomac State College.
Learn more about the nursing program and discover how LNPs can earn their BSN degrees.