Physician assistant students receive white coats

Julie Eihusen shakes hands with Mary Haven, associate dean of the School of Allied Health Professions.

Thirty-nine new physician assistant students in UNMC’s School of Allied Health Professions recently took an oath of professionalism during a ceremony in which they also donned crisp new white coats.

More than 135 people attended Wednesday’s symbolic White Coat Ceremony, which is a “rite of passage” that helps establish a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of health care. The students share the goal of becoming physician assistants in 28 months.

One-by-one, the students were called by name to receive their white coat. At the end of the ceremony, the class recited an oath of professionalism.

UNMC student Denise Taggart with her husband, Bill, and daughter, Grace.

Denise Taggart interest in the UNMC program was sparked by a physician assistant near her hometown of Lake Andes, S.D.

“We lived in a very rural area and the PA (physician assistant) was all we had other than driving 45 minutes to see a physician,” Taggert said. “The PA sparked my interest.”

Taggart is one of 39 students in the Class of 2005, which consists of 34 women and five men.

The national trend, for the past five years, has had more women applying to PA school than men, said Jim Somers, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the physician assistant program.

Faculty member Tom Grothe helps Alecia Julius with her white coat.

“We have a lot of very well qualified women,” Dr. Somers said. “It was just the opposite in the 1960s and 70s.”