The 2025-2026 Academic Year White Coat Ceremony, organized by the Midwifery Department of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMÜ), was held in the Blue Hall of the Atatürk Congress and Culture Center.
97 Midwifery Department students donned their white coats and received their fetoscopes.
The program was attended by OMÜ General Secretary Prof. Dr. Erhan Burak Pancar, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Seval Ağaçdiken Alkan, Head of the Midwifery Department Prof. Dr. Zeliha Koç, academics, graduating students, midwives and nurses working at OMÜ SUVAM and Samsun City Hospital, and the students' families.
"The midwifery profession is one of the long-established health disciplines that directly supports the family."
The opening speech was given by the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Dr. Öğr. Faculty member Seval Ağaçdiken Alkan, in her speech, stated the following:
“I am very happy to be with you today at this ceremony, which has high spiritual and symbolic value. The midwifery profession is one of the long-established health disciplines that has existed from the past to the present and directly supports the family, which is the foundation of society. Today, midwives are professionals who support families with their education, practice, and guidance roles, starting from the prenatal period and continuing through pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum process. Dear families, your children are inheriting the legacy of a long-established profession; therefore, I congratulate you. Dear student midwives, you will be the inheritors of both a long-established profession and the tradition of the Midwifery Department of the OMÜ Faculty of Health Sciences. I would like to thank our esteemed professors for conveying the philosophy of midwifery and the values of the profession to our students, and I wish our students success in their education.”
Following this, the Deputy Head of the Midwifery Department, Dr. Assoc. Prof. Şebnem Rüzgar, drew attention to the social importance of the midwifery profession and the professional meaning of the fetoscope.
Following the speeches, the students were invited onto the stage to put on their white coats and receive their fetoscopes. The white coat and fetoscope became powerful symbols representing the students' first step into their professional lives and their commitment to the midwifery profession.
The ceremony concluded with the taking of commemorative photographs.