NV
Noe Valdivia
  • Class of 2018
  • Chicago, IL

Nursing Students Achieve Milestone

2016 Nov 1

Lakeview College of Nursing recently held a ceremony in order to recognize students who achieved the transition into clinical practice within their bachelor's degree nursing program.

Noe Valdivia of Chicago, IL , was one of the students who received a white coat during the celebration.

Over 60 students from Lakeview's Charleston and Danville Campuses attended the event that was held on Sept. 23 at the Wyndham Garden in Urbana, IL. A large number of supportive family members and friends also attended and came close to filling the facility to its capacity.

The College's faculty, who were wearing white coats, cloaked the students with their new white coats. The white color of the coat represents compassionate caring and the student's receipt of the coat demonstrates commitment to this compassionate and humanistic care.

Historically, the white coat ceremony has been reserved for college of medicine as a way of welcoming new physicians into professional practice. The new physicians would receive their white lab coats upon graduation in recognition of their accomplishment.

Within the nursing community the right of passage into professional practice has traditionally been symbolized by graduates receiving their college's official nursing pin. Although this tradition continues, the nursing profession as well as overall healthcare has changed.

The Nursing profession has gained more respect after been named the most trusted profession for each year since first being included in nationwide polls in 1999. Lakeview's Dean of Nursing Jessica Sotiriou explained how this has had an impact on the tradition of white coat ceremonies.

"Our profession has been recognized as an integral part of the interdisciplinary healthcare team mode. It's from this model that nursing colleges began holding their own white coat ceremonies," said Sotiriou.

Lakeview holds its white coat ceremony event to signify the transition of beginning level nursing students from classroom knowledge to clinical practice. The same coat that is received at the white coat ceremony will also be donned for Lakeview's pinning ceremony that will occur at the end of the nursing program, according to Sotiriou.

Travis Whisman, a Lakeview faculty member who spoke at the event, mentioned that most memories from nursing school will be the clinical experiences. He also said, "Clinical is a place that you will clarify the type of nurse you want to be."

Members of Lakeview's Student Government Association led the Nightengale Nursing Pledge and the White Coat Oath. Students recited the popular verses that call for practicing the profession to the best of their abilityand to promote, advocate and strive to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient.

Sotiriou provided a few words of advice to students within her remarks. She said, "With each patient encounter you experience - the happy ones, the sad ones, the frustrating ones, the hopeless ones - - please don't forget your compassionate care or lose sight of the reasons you want to be a nurse. You can do it."

Lakeview College of Nursing offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree. It is a single-purpose, private institution that has specialized in nursing education in the Danville, IL area since 1894. Lakeview began offering a cooperative program with Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL, in the fall of 2001.