Texas Delta Nursing Students Pursue Their Passions

Top row, left to right: JANE POWELL, GEORGIA GINN, LAUREN PITTS, MEGAN WHITE Bottom row, left to right: KAYLA BUSTIOS, ALLY IKEYA, DARBY GALL, DELANEY HUGHES, KAYLEE WESTRA

By Texas Delta LAUREN LAMONTAGNE, Former Vice President Communications

Competitive, passion-driven and highly renowned, Texas Christian University’s (TCU) nursing program recognized its junior students with their white coats in Fall 2019. The White Coat Ceremony is a meaningful step in a nurse’s career and a big honor. The Texas Delta chapter of Pi Phi is proud of its hardworking nursing students. Five members received their white coats and joined the seniors who received their white coats last year. As juniors and seniors, these nursing students dedicate significant amounts of time to their studies, and attend clinicals once a week to get hands-on experience in the field. Clinical experience will help them decide which field of nursing they will pursue.

Texas Delta’s nursing majors are passionate about their studies, and their passion comes from many different backgrounds. Because of this, they were especially honored to receive their white coats. Junior DARBY GALL recalls what led her to pursue a nursing degree: “My grandmother motivated me to be a nurse! When she was fighting cancer, she always told me how her nurses made the biggest impact on her care. Her nurses made her visits to the hospital so much better and helped keep her spirits up. I want to be a nurse so I can help others the way my grandmother’s nurses helped her.”

Because the White Coat Ceremony symbolizes the next step in a student's journey to becoming a nurse, the event also represented the sisters’ dedication to the practice and the beginning of their clinical learning. “We had worked

so hard for that moment," said past Chapter President KAYLEE WESTRA. "To share it with our family and friends in attendance, cheering us on, made it such a great experience. I got chills during the ceremony when we stood and took the nursing pledge together, along with the other nurses in the room. It made me realize how passionate I am about this practice and how excited I am to care for my patients.”

The nursing pledge the sisters took embodied the responsibilities of being a nurse and represented a turning point in the students' lives. While TCU's Harris Nursing College is an arduous, grueling program, it is also rewarding, and this ceremony signifies such rewards. Texas Delta’s senior nursing majors, having had lots of experience in their clinical work, say they feel as though their hard work is beginning to pay off.

Students also feel the TCU nursing program is unique because of the community and support system it provides. And, Texas Delta's deep presence in the nursing program also benefits the chapter's nursing students. “Pi Phi has supported me so much throughout nursing school by connecting me with older Texas Deltas who have thrived in Harris College,” says senior JANE POWELL.