First year pharmacy and physician assistant students at the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences (CPHS) at Campbell University, along with their families and friends, gathered in Buies Creek on the afternoon of August 14 to celebrate receiving the first white coats of their health care career at the College’s annual White Coat Ceremony.
“Campbell provides an opportunity to make a life, a life of service,” said Campbell University President J. Bradly Creed during his greetings to the crowd. “You are beginning a new journey here, a journey of service, healing, compassion, and hope.”
Due to the interprofessional nature of the ceremony, the crowd was addressed by a multitude of speakers from various facets of the health care profession. Tom Colletti, DHSc, chair & director of the PA program, and Byron May, PharmD, chair of pharmacy practice, both welcomed their students to the first academic ceremony of their careers within CPHS. Also included in the program were Tracy Morea, PA-C, and Franklin Landers, PharmD ’01, MBA ’02, who provided remarks on professionalism and the importance of the white coat.
The health sciences profession recognizes the white coat as a symbol of professionalism, integrity, high moral values, empathy and compassion. The shorter white coat is worn by health care providers in training, as the length of the white coat grows longer as the provider gains experience.
“We are immediately identified when we get to put on our white coats,” said Morea, who serves as a preceptor for the PA program. “Professionalism begins with your advanced degrees, and your specialization in the field of medicine. To be professional is to show respect for those around you no matter what the situation is…to exhibit emotional intelligence. They put the emotions and the needs of someone else first no matter how bad a day they may be having.”
“The reason you have accepted the challenge and made the sacrifices to get here is to serve and help others and to better the community you live in,” shared Landers. “The patients that you see come to you in need. They see your white coat, and that white coat is a symbol of experience and trust, and sometimes authority. They need your experience and they need your assistance.”
The one hundred and forty-eight students were coated by their respective faculty representatives and signed the CPHS Honor Code before celebrating with family, friends, and faculty at small receptions on campus. Pharmacy student white coats were sponsored by CVS Health and the physician assistant white coats were a gift from the PA Class of 2015.
Photo: Dean Michael L. Adams addresses first year pharmacy and PA students