WHITE COAT CEREMONY HONORS STUDENT MILESTONE

Students in the Florida State University Panama City program for Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice marked the transition from classroom to clinical settings on July 31 with the prestigious White Coat Ceremony.

The ceremony signifies entry into the second phase of study in FSU Panama City’s nationally accredited DNAP program. Attended by family and friends, the event celebrates their move from classroom to in-hospital patient service. For the next 21 months, DNAP students will work in one of 23 operating rooms and outpatient sites across the Southeast.

“The impetus for developing this ceremony came from the desire to recognize the hard work our nurse anesthesia doctoral candidates put into preparing for their clinical training in anesthesia,” said Lonnie Hodges, assistant program director. “These candidates spent multiple years preparing to become registered nurses, have worked at the bedside in critical care units providing for the needs of their patients, and have completed the first year of didactic study in their doctoral education to include intensive training in the simulation lab.”

Students begin by learning basic principles of anesthesia, biochemistry and physics, anatomy and physiology and pharmacology. Before receiving their white coats and dispersing to clinical sites, the students spend countless hours in simulations, learning to insert IV lines, perform spinal blocks and epidurals, use ultrasound equipment to guide them to veins and deal with complications.

The White Coat Ceremony, first initiated at Colombia University in 1993, symbolizes a significant step along that path. Nearly 361 nursing programs across the country participate in this ceremony. For more information, visit pc.fsu.edu/nap.