HPU nursing students mark milestone
Oct. 26—HIGH POINT — Four High Point University students will achieve a first for them and for the school during an event Saturday.
The students will participate in what's known as a white coat ceremony, which marks the advancement of the students' education and training to a level where the four young women can go into the field as part of earning a nursing degree, said Racquel Ingram, the founding chairwoman for the HPU Department of Nursing and a longtime registered nurse.
"This means a lot," Ingram said. "The white coat ceremony is a symbol of students being declared to go into clinical practice. They have completed their foundational studies."
Up until now, the students have worked with simulators of patients in the laboratory in the Department of Nursing facility.
The students will receive training while serving at area hospitals such as Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist High Point Medical Center and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
The first Department of Nursing students are Kellie Brewer, 21, of Winston-Salem; Hope Strickland, 23, of Charlotte; Gracie Felts, 20, of Raleigh; and Piper Dillon, 20, of Aldie, Virginia. They enrolled for the 2022-23 academic year and are on track to graduate in May 2024.
HPU has ambitious goals for the program, Ingram said. Within two academic years, the department aims to have 100 students, Ingram told The High Point Enterprise.
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