Binghamton University’s Doctor of Pharmacy Class of 2026 receives white coats

Family and friends joined with dozens of entering Doctor of Pharmacy students in the Osterhout Concert Theater in the Anderson Center for the Performing Arts at Binghamton University to officially watch the first-year students receive their white coats. The annual White Coat Ceremony marks the students’ entrance into the profession of pharmacy.

“As first-year pharmacy students — you’ll be called P1s — you are embarking on an exciting path,” said Dean Kanneboyina Nagaraju. “When you graduate from here in four years, you will be prepared to take any path in the field of pharmacy that you are drawn to — and excel!”

Nagaraju reminded students that they will use the latest technology, work with interprofessional teams and learn from highly accomplished faculty as well as fellow students over the next four years.

“These experiences will prepare you for your clinical experiences and for the ever-evolving world of modern healthcare,” he said.

“I am confident that you will excel here, because we have the best teachers and scientists who work closely with our students to ensure that they succeed in their academic careers,” said President Harvey Stenger. “And the fact is, you’ve come to Binghamton at just the right time. Not only have we created a cutting-edge faculty for you, but right now our nation needs trained pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists.

“Already we’ve seen the crucial role that pharmacists can play in improving public health, for example, by administering the COVID vaccine, and we can expect a continued reliance on our pharmacists to address many of the healthcare challenges we face,” Stenger said.

The White Coat ceremony “is a great tradition because it reinforces the idea that, as you put on your coat, you are actually shouldering a new role with new responsibilities,” he added. ”It is a call to recognize the duty you have to the people you will be treating and to accomplish your tasks with professionalism and high ethical standards.”

Attending his first Binghamton White Coat Ceremony, Donald Hall, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost, told students they are entering a profession with unlimited opportunities whose scope of practice is evolving and expanding on an almost daily basis.

“Healthcare is America’s largest industry, and you are positioning yourselves to be part of the dramatic changes it is undergoing. You are about to begin your training to work as members of healthcare teams to provide better patient care, to extend that care to underserved and vulnerable populations, and to do it in a more cost-effective manner,” Hall said. “You will be part of the solution to America’s healthcare crisis.”

Phil Samples, a retired United States Air Force Colonel with a four decades-long career in pharmacy, spoke to students via video, on behalf of the Dean’s Advisory Council.

“You have chosen a profession and the school has chosen you,” Samples said. “You will be challenged academically, but I also challenge you to appreciate and understand that pharmacy, like all other medical professions is one that demands lifelong learning due to how rapidly technology is facilitating the change and how new diseases and treatments make this learning critical.

“The university has sought out and recruited some of the best academic and research faculty available in any pharmacy school in the country,” he added. “The faculty are here to prepare you to meet the challenges that you will face throughout your career.”

Samples spoke about the many options students will have for a career in pharmacy as well. “The opportunities are vast and they await you, so my personal challenge to you as you navigate this phase of your pharmacy career, is to make your connections, find you mentors, find your interest and your passion, and commit to lifelong learning,” he said.

Keynote speaker Mary Ann Kliethermes delved into the history of the White Coat Ceremony as a metaphor for professionalism.

The director of medication safety and quality at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Kliethermes, also an adjunct professor at Midwestern University – Chicago College of Pharmacy, is an experienced clinical pharmacist with expertise in pharmacist reimbursement, medication optimization, and safety and quality attainment associated pharmacist services, particularly in new healthcare models and value-based payment systems.

It was not until her first job as a pharmacist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit that Kliethermes put on a white coat. “A brand-new concept at the time was to place satellite pharmacies on the patient care floors and to identify who we were on the floor we received a white coat with pharmacist and our name embroidered on the upper left-hand corner. Back in 1972, when I started pharmacy school at age 17, there was no white coat ceremony.

“Most refer to Columbia University medical school as where the white coat ceremony originated in 1993, with the Arnold Gold Foundation, which provided white coats to all the incoming medical students — with a request.

“The white coat, the foundation stated, should signal that the person wearing it has the ‘characteristics of a complete doctor’ and impart the responsibility and privilege associated with it,” she added. “I know from years of teaching, the challenge is that knowledge is relatively easy to teach and learn, but compassion and leadership? Not so much. Yet these skills are what are most sought after when hiring a pharmacist or choosing a resident.”

The white coats represent several traits, Kliethermes said, including character, which encompasses honesty, integrity, humility, responsibility, accountability and moral courage. ”Do your best not to fall prey and never lose your moral compass, your integrity or honesty. Know that it is your responsibility as a pharmacist for the entire medication use process and nobody else’s. This is leadership; be an example through your actions, do what is noble and right. Your patients deserve it.”

Knowledge is also key, Kliethermes said, and she reminded students of the importance of self-directed learning. “Throughout your career there will always be a new disease and treatment (i.e., COVID and monkeypox as recent examples) that you did not learn about in school. The better skilled you are at reading material and extracting what you need to know, the better practitioner you will be,” she said. Learning how to self-learn is invaluable, so practice that now and apply that knowledge.”

A lot of knowledge does not do a whole lot of good unless you can apply it, she added. “To be successful at your craft, you must critically think how to use knowledge to problem solve, test plans and adapt information to optimize care for the person in front of you.”

Kliethermes also spoke of the value of staying current in the field. “If you were to ask me the one most important lesson I learned from my PharmD training, it is what one of my professors emphatically told us: that we must routinely and regularly read to stay current in clinical practice. That — by far —made the difference in allowing me to seamlessly take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves.

“Healthcare is a fast-changing field; for pharmacists there are often 60-90 new medications to learn about each year,” she added. “One’s knowledge can become out of date quickly. Ultimately, the goal is really to gain ever-increasing wisdom and the confidence to make the best decisions every day in practice — a true leadership trait.”

Yet another trait of import, Kliethermes said, is the ability to connect with others through compassion, kindness, empathy and self-control. “A feeling of caring requires a connection, which is achieved first by listening. Patients will listen to you when they know you care and by taking the time to listen, you will find that 99% of the time there are valid reasons for why someone may think in a way that differs from yours,” she said. “You know something different and you need to figure out how to relay that.”

Ultimately when combining these characteristics with knowledge, you will find you are able to influence, which is incredibly rewarding professionally, Kliethermes added. “It will enable you to get a patient to trust you and adopt a health behavior they have been unwilling to do, or have prescribers trust you to select the best medication for a complex patient or be sought after for the knowledge and care you provide. This is not unique to pharmacy or healthcare; it is being a good human citizen and a team player.”

Finally, Kliethermes encouraged students to explore the vast opportunities that exist with the Doctor of Pharmacy professional degree. “There are well over 100 steps in the medication-use process. In there somewhere is a role that excites your passion. The choices you will have with this degree are vast, and when you find your passion, you will know it and you will love your job,” she said. “Life is too short to do something that makes you dread going to work every day. Pharmacy has something for you. Figure it out.

“The mission, vision and core values of the Binghamton University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences reflect all the white coat symbolism I have highlighted: patient centeredness, integrity, leadership, research, creating better health. We are counting on your ingenuity, creativity, new ideas, skill and professionalism to advance our practice,” Kliethermes concluded. “We’re counting on you.”

Following the keynote address, Erin Pauling, assistant dean for academic affairs, asked that the 56 pharmacy students cross the stage one at a time to be coated by Elizabeth Hageman, assistant director of skills education and clinical assistant professor, and Nicholas Schwier, assistant dean for experiential education and clinical associate professor.

“White Coat ceremonies have traditionally been used by schools of pharmacy as an outward sign of an inward and personal commitment to the profession,” Pauling said. “As our students walk across the state today, they will receive their white coat and take the first step to a lifelong commitment to the pharmacy profession.”

With assistant from two alumni (Nicole Ink ’22 and Courtney Ray ’22) and two fourth-year students (Keith Hughes and Dominick Patafio) Pauling then led the students through the passing of the light of knowledge, which “symbolizes a very real exchange between you, your mentors, faculty members and colleagues.”

The ceremony concluded as KarenBeth Bohan, interim associate dean for education and research, and professor of pharmacy practice, led the students and all pharmacists in the audience in the Pharmacy Oath.