The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges and Nursing announced that Missouri Western’s Department of Nursing and Allied Health was one of 100 schools to be selected to receive funding support to pilot White Coat Ceremonies, which are designed to instill a commitment to providing compassionate care among future health professionals. The ceremony was held Oct. 9, one week before the nursing students began their clinicals.
Though White Coat Ceremonies have been an important rite of passage at medical schools for more than 20 years, the new collaboration between APGF and AACN marks the first time a coordinated effort has been developed to offer similar events at schools of nursing.
Dr. Gretchen Quenstedt-Moe and student Tucker Wynes at the Department of Nursing and Allied Health’s first White Coat Ceremony.
“The Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing are sending a clear message to new nursing students that compassionate care must be a hallmark of their clinical practice,” Dr. Evelyn Brooks, professor of nursing, said at the ceremony.
The 50 students, who will graduate in Spring 2016, received a white coat, a lapel pin and a small lamp. The Gold Foundation provided the lapel pin with its logo – a stethoscope in the shape of a heart, surrounded by the words “Humanism” and “Excellence.” The white coat symbolizes professionalism in health care, and the lamp is often symbolic for nursing care and the warmth, goodwill, and reliability noted with this care regardless of time and place. The lamp is often associated with Florence Nightingale who was referred to as the “lady with the lamp” during the 1800s.
At the end of the ceremony, students recited a Nursing Student Pledge of Commitment that they had written.
“The goal is to improve healing and healthcare outcomes by restoring the balance between high tech and high touch,” Dr. Brooks said. “That is characterized by a respectful and compassionate relationship between nurses, as well as all other members of the healthcare team, and their patients.”
The history of the nursing program
The nursing program began in 1971, when it admitted 15 students into an associate degree program. Missouri Western developed a curriculum for a four-year degree and submitted it to the Coordinating Board for Higher Education in 1981.
The request was not approved. The reasons given were because of poor economic conditions in the state and that there were already two nursing programs in the area – Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville offered a four-year nursing program and Missouri Methodist Hospital in St. Joseph offered a hospital-based diploma program.
The bachelor’s degree proposal was resubmitted in 1984. This time, the Coordinating Board requested that Missouri Western work with Northwest Missouri State University because of the program duplication. In 1985, the two institutions agreed that Northwest would eliminate its four-year nursing program and one would be developed at Missouri Western.
In turn, Missouri Western agreed to drop some of its agriculture programs in exchange for the four-year nursing program. Additionally, Missouri Methodist Hospital agreed to not accept new students into its program, and the last diploma class graduated in May 1987.
The Coordinating Board accepted the agreements and gave its approval for a four-year nursing degree at Missouri Western in February 1986. The first 20 students were accepted into the program that fall.
Missouri Western offered both associate and bachelor’s degree programs in nursing until the associate degree program graduated its last class in May 1989.