white coat ceremony

My parents are here for the White Coat Ceremony. I was actually rather surprised as they never seemed to particularly pay much attention to "parent weekend" kind of things in college (especially being on the other coast), but I guess this was actually a really big deal for people: kind of like a graduation except that we're starting rather than finishing things and we have not yet done anything except get to med school.

I am embarrassed to admit that it wasn't really that big deal for me - I'm usually pretty into symbolism and things of that nature but I don't know why it didn't quite do it for me. But I'm really happy that my classmates and parents seemed to get a big kick out of it and everyone seemed pretty happy about the whole thing. As a fellow MD/PhD student commented, "I feel really legit now."

There's something sort of shamanistic about the cloaking, as if somehow wearing a white coat confers special powers upon us medical students that we didn't have yesterday. And of course there is the oath of a physician. I was disappointed that we didn't swear to "first do no harm" but it was quite nice - probably better anyway.

Maybe I'm just too cynical about the whole process - read too many books, talked to too many burnt-out students and residents - to really be fully convinced that the humanistic aspects are really going stick through 3rd/4th year medical school and residency. Or perhaps it's just that I'm too idealistic about the whole thing. I would rather not get my hopes up and then be disappointed that people really weren't into the service and humanism aspect. I don't expect us to be superhuman that in the course of sheer survival of training and accompanying emotional and physical exhaustion that we really will be able to care about patients in the five minutes spent with them.

In some way it's simply that I hope to be pleasantly surprised if somehow it is possible to maintain humanism throughout medical training. I know that's pretty cynical. But maybe it's just cloaked idealism. I want this to be about service, but if I revert to sheer survival at some point down the road, I'm not going to be angry or surprised. Just do my best throughout.

This was just a ceremony. The real test will come when we are exhausted, tired, sleep-deprived, burnt out - will we then still be able to be kind and compassionate not only to patients but to each other?

That's what I am waiting to see. It is the practice and committment to this that's going to put the power in the words of the oath we swore today.