The University of Vermont issued the following news release:
For doctors, 'practice' is performance, 'rehearsal' is medical school and the 'costume' is a white coat - the traditional symbol of professionalism and integrity for a physician. At the University of Vermont College of Medicine, show time is March 1. That's when the Class of 2010 will begin 'Doctoring in Vermont,' a course that involves training in physicians' offices and seeing patients with preceptors. At the White Coat Ceremony, which is part of that transition milestone, families, friends and faculty watched as UVM first-year medical students received their first white coats on Friday, February 16 in Ira Allen Chapel on the UVM campus. Hosted by College of Medicine Interim Dean John P. Fogarty, Jr., M.D., the event included a keynote address by Allan Ramsay, M.D., UVM professor and vice chair of family medicine and director of the palliative care consult service at Fletcher Allen Health Care.
A total of 107 students participated in the White Coat Ceremony, including:
* Britton Keeshan - A Connecticut native, he became the youngest person in the world to set foot on each of the seven continents' highest points when he reached the summit of Mt. Everest in 2004. He credits his late grandfather Bob Keeshan, television's 'Captain Kangaroo,' with encouraging him to 'strive even harder than I've ever strived before.' A graduate of Middlebury College with a Master's degree in public health from Dartmouth, Keeshan volunteered in health clinics in India and Ethiopia, as well as with a Vermont ambulance company, before beginning medical school. He hopes to practice medicine in developing nations.
* Jessie Willow Janowski - She grew up on a commune in West Glover, Vt., where the above and beyond efforts of her local elementary school teachers inspired her interest in science and the Upward Bound Program helped prepare her for higher learning beyond her tight-knit rural community. After playing two varsity sports and graduating from Tufts University, she worked in medical research labs affiliated with Brown University, Rhode Island Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Administration. Janowski, who has published research on substance abuse treatment and innate immune response, aims to use her medical degree to better people's lives as she continues to explore the world.
* Jason Halperin - Originally intent on attending law school after graduating from New York University, he took a year off to work at Doctors Without Borders/M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF) in New York and South Africa. While involved in an advocacy campaign for affordable AIDS medications in the developing world, he was so impressed by the physicians he met that he decided to attend medical school. Halperin earned a Master's in public health and worked with MSF in Southern Sudan on a fatal infectious disease outbreak before coming to UVM. He hopes to specialize in primary care with a rural health focus.
During the ceremony, the Presentation of Coats was led by Associate Dean for Student Affairs G. Scott Waterman, M.D. College of Medicine faculty members assisting with the cloaking included: Interim Dean Fogarty; John Brumsted, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and chief quality officer for Fletcher Allen's Jeffords Institute for Quality and Operational Effectiveness; Tania Bertsch, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of clerkship programs; Steven Lidofsky, M.D., Ph.D., director of the M.D./Ph.D. program and associate professor of medicine and pharmacology; and Robert Macauley, M.D., clinical assistant professor of pediatrics and 2006 Recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. A closing poem by former faculty member Diane Magrane, M.D., titled 'A Mentor's Gift' was read by Cynthia Forehand, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the Foundations level of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum.
The University of Vermont Medical Alumni Association, Fletcher Allen Health Care, and the UVM College of Medicine Dean's Office provided white coats and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation provided Humanism in Medicine lapel pins for each student.
Background Information on the White Coat Ceremony
* Originally, lab coats were beige and worn by scientists; medical professionals chose white when they adopted wearing lab coats in the late 19th century.
* According to the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the White Coat Ceremony helps establish a psychological contract for the practice of medicine.
* Initiated on August 20, 1993 at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, this annual ceremony or a similar rite now takes place at about 90 percent of schools of medicine and osteopathy in the United States.Contact: Jennifer Nachbur, 802/656-7875, 802/656-3203, Jennifer.Nachbur@uvm.edu.
Jennifer Nachbur, 802/656-7875, 802/656-3203, Jennifer.Nachbur@uvm.edu.
