Filling the White Coat with substance
Keynote speaker Kirch exhorts students to cherish the gift of medical education and live their core values

By Ellie Castano
UMass Medical School Communications

This afternoon, in front of family, friends and loved ones, the newest members of the UMass Medical School community took part in a ceremony that marks the beginning of their journey to becoming medical professionals. At the White Coat Ceremony that capped a week of Convocation celebrations, students in the School of Medicine Class of 2015 were presented with their white coats—the mantle of the medical professional—to signify the beginning of their clinical training.

School of Medicine Dean Terence R. Flotte, MD, shared a moving reflection in which he likened the white coat to a suit of armor and physicians to warriors, saying, “Most of our patients . . . need to know that the woman or man in the white coat is not just a comforter, but a warrior, fighting the best possible fight against their disease on their behalf. We are warriors who will not always win, but warriors nonetheless.”

He talked about how his anger as a young physician at being unable to save a young girl has fueled his desire to fight for his patients through compassionate care and through research, and how it continues to fuel him to this day, as he was recently reminded while attending to the youngest victims of the earthquake in Haiti. “The point is that in my heart, I carry the rage, and in my white coat, I am a warrior.”

Keynote speaker Darrell G. Kirch, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, touched on several themes in his keynote address to the students and their family and friends who came to share the day with them. He cautioned students that although their newly donned white coats might be the correct size, they won’t fit. “It will take quite a bit of time to fill them with substance. That’s what the folks here will help you do over the next four years, slowly, incrementally,” Dr. Kirch said, referring to the medical school faculty members with whom he shared the stage.

Kirch also spoke about medical education as a series of gifts that students receive, from the gift of anatomy class made possible by “someone who gave his body in death so that you could learn about life” to the gift given by a mother who allows a student to participate in the birth of her child.

He concluded by exhorting the students to live the core values they will learn in ethics class, saying “While the white coats symbolically bind us together, what truly binds us together are the four cores values of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and social justice.” He urged the students to be especially mindful of the value of social justice, which manifests as an obligation not only to individual patients but to a system that works for all patients.

This is second year that UMMS has held a White Coat Ceremony. As a way to make the tradition unique and to tie it to the new Learner-centered Integrated Curriculum launched last year, the white coats were presented to the students by their Learning Community mentors, as well as another significant individual chosen by the student.

Once all the coats were presented, the students recited an oath written by members of the Class of 2013 for their April 2011 Second-Year Oath ceremony. It was chosen by members of the Class of 2015 to underscore their commitment not only to the guiding principles they will follow from their first day of training but also their commitment to the inter-class interaction espoused by the Learning Communities.

The White Coat Ceremony is a relatively new tradition for medical students, started in 1993 by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. It emphasizes the importance of both scientific excellence and compassionate care for the patient, according to the foundation. The white coat is placed on each student's shoulders by individuals who represent the value system of the school and the new profession the students are about to enter. The white coats that were presented today are a gift from the SOM Class of 2011.

Related link on UMassMedNow:

View the slideshow
White Coat 2010: Students urged to view white coats as ‘an opportunity to reveal your compassion’