The Orpheum buzzed like opening night.
Which it was. The UNMC College of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony, this year held Aug. 25 at Omaha’s venerable downtown theater, officially marks the launch of medical school, and a career dedicated to patient care, for each respective incoming class.
“It’s the beginning,” said Wendy Grant, MD, Wong Distinguished Professor in Surgery and, importantly in this setting, associate dean of student affairs.
Everything is different from this moment on.
“It’s an important rite of passage,” Dr. Grant said, “that they have earned.”
More photos from the events
See these Flickr photo albums for more images from the white coat and professionalism ceremonies.
Around UNMC, incoming students performed this same rite of passage, marking the commencement of their journeys as health care professionals, not only future physicians, but also pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists and future allied health professionals.
Being presented with a white coat also reflects the importance of compassionate patient care. The coat comes with a responsibility, and the new medical students, after donning them, took an oath, as did other new UNMC students.
The white coat holds a solemn promise.
“The white coat that you are receiving,” Bradley Britigan, MD, dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, told the assembled students, gravely, symbolizes “respect, competency, service and integrity, and should not be donned casually.”
It was not. It never is.
Newly minted M1 Sam Fitzpatrick summed up the experience in a single word:
“Reaffirming,” he said later, still proudly wearing his white coat.
“It’s a sense of relief that I got here,” he said, after the ceremony, on the heels of taking about 10 pictures with loved ones. Seven came to share the moment with him.
“And it is a reaffirmation that I can believe in myself.”
As they sat waiting for the UNMC College of Dentistry event to begin, incoming dental students Katie Tran, of Elkhorn, Nebraska, and Carter Ulrich, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, discussed the excitement of the day.
Tran said putting on the white coat made her reflect on “the hard work it took to get to into dental school.”
“It marks a new chapter over our lives,” she said.
Click the Play button below to watch this video from the UNMC College of Dentistry white coat ceremony.
Speaking to the incoming dentistry students, Dean Gerard Kugel, DMD, PhD, spoke about the significance of the white coat. He told the students that the white coat represents their commitment to assume the responsibilities of a dental professional.
In all, 56 incoming dental students and 24 incoming dental hygiene students received their white coats on Aug. 22 at the UNMC College of Dentistry event, held at the student union on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus.
“The white coat reminds you, at the beginning of your studies, that your responsibility and trust is with the patient,” Dr. Kugel said.
“I remember when I first put my white coat on, the excitement I had. But I actually feel that excitement every time I see a patient with their trust in me. The white coat is a symbol. The reality is the white coat is your commitment to your patients, because that’s what it’s all about.”
The UNMC College of Allied Health Professions held its Professionalism Ceremony on August 22 at Baxter Arena, welcoming 316 incoming students from 30 states and two countries outside the US.
The ceremony focuses on professionalism, encompassing the concepts of ethical behavior, compassionate care and service to others. Students located full time at a satellite site outside of Nebraska connected via Zoom from their assigned satellite site.
For the UNMC College of Pharmacy, some 70 pharmacy students participated in a ceremony held Aug. 23 at UNMC’s main campus in Omaha. More than 60 pharmacy students from the Omaha campus joined with nine students participating in the UNMC College of Pharmacy’s PharmD program as UNMC’s first pharmacy class in Kearney.
Don Klepser, PhD, interim dean of UNMC’s College of Pharmacy, said the white coats symbolize professionalism and the “tremendous responsibilities that come with it.”
“I have no doubt that each of you will thrive in your white coat and make the College of Pharmacy faculty, staff and alumni proud of your accomplishments,” Dr. Klepser told the incoming students.
Binh Le, M4, president of the UNMC Gold Humanism Honor Society chapter, urged the 145 new medical students to “wear your coat with pride, humility and compassion.”
A total of 145 new medical students took part in the UNMC College of Medicine white coat ceremony, held at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Omaha.
Even amongst the joy of the ceremony, the gravity of it all made the moment the most special. The White Coat Ceremony is a tradition and program of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to humanism in health care. The UNMC College of Medicine Alumni Council, those who know best the responsibility to come, sponsored the coats.
“Medical knowledge alone does not make a physician,” Dr. Britigan said.
“There will be times you will not have anything medical to offer your patient,” he continued. Days when patients look to you for empathy and compassion.
“This is part of what it means,” Dr. Britigan said, “to wear the white coat.”
With contributions from John Keenan, Fran Higgins, Kelsey Kirk and Jeff Robb and photos by Chris Christen and Fran Higgins.
Great to see Eben Samuel receiving his white coat and to see him continue his journey from the UNMC High School Alliance to the UNMC College of Medicine.