VCU news

By Brooklyn Jones
University News Services

Incoming first year Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine students were greeted Thursday with the 11th annual White Coat Ceremony, which marked the beginning of the medical education for the class of 2010.

During the ceremony, students were robed with their white coats by the School of Medicine’s senior faculty. The custom serves as a precursor to the students’ four-year journey through medical school and then onto their medical careers.

According to School of Medicine officials, the white coat is a symbol of empathy and professionalism that binds students to high measures of regard.

“It makes the new students aware that they have entered a profession with high moral standards,” said James Messmer, M.D., senior associate dean for medical education and moderator of the ceremony. “Their white coats symbolize that they will be entering relationships with patients that are expected to demonstrate professionalism in all ways.”

This year’s guest speaker was Alpha A. Fowler, M.D., chair of VCU’s Division of Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care in the Department of Internal Medicine.

“I think it’s important for incoming students to have a white coat put on them and then have it explained to them what it means,” said Fowler. “I never had anything like that coming up in my medical career. No one made a big deal about becoming a doctor. VCU makes it a big deal.”

Fowler has spent 23 years educating medical students and physicians-in-training. His main teaching concentration has been in the School of Medicine, coaching students in hospital critical care settings and outpatient sites.

After students received their white coats, they took the Hippocratic Oath, which stresses the primacy of the doctor-patient relationship.

“There's a deep sense of pride that comes from looking out over the audience and seeing all of the enthusiasm of the next generation of physicians,” said Messmer. “It's really an honor to be front and center and to watch the faces of these new student doctors who are entering our profession.”

The White Coat Ceremony was established in 1993 by Arnold Gold, M.D., at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Gold felt that students were reciting the Hippocratic Oath four years too late. The White Coat Ceremony obligates students to the highest standard of care at the beginning of their medical education and binds them to this standard for the rest of their careers.