Class of 2017 Nursing Students Get White Coats

By ChaseYavondaC

UAMS CON White Coat McSweeney

Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN, interim dean and associate dean for research in the College of Nursing, speaks to the class of 2017.

More than 300 family members and friends, along with UAMS College of Nursing faculty and alumni, gathered Oct. 9 at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock as 122 junior nursing students donned their white coats for the first time. The annual ceremony is a symbol of passage into the clinical area of their nursing education journey.

Emily Sanders, one of the more than 100 junior nursing students to receive a white coat, said it was a rewarding feeling to sit among her classmates and realize long days and nights, filled with hard work and studying, had paid off.

“We now have the opportunity to use the skills that we have learned to care for actual patients and encounter experiences that will grow us as future nurses,” she said.

UAMS CON White Coat Stacy Sells

Stacy Sells, a UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Foundation board member and former UAMS patient, spoke to the class about how to approach each patient and family.

As part of the night’s festivities, the nursing students recited the Nightingale Pledge, which calls upon them to be devoted to patients and the community, and promote the health and welfare for all.

The class of 2017 heard from Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN, interim dean and associate dean for research in the College of Nursing, as well as Stacy Sells, a UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Foundation board member and former UAMS patient, who reminded the students of how to approach each patient and family with kindness, care and empathy.

Sanders said Sells’ story was the most memorable part of the evening.

“It was special to hear that through her illness and recovery, she found encouragement and even friendship in the many nurses that cared for her,” she said.

The class of 2017 has 122 students, including 101 female and 21 male students.