Class of 2012 White Coat

Last year around this time, I stood up in a freshly ironed white coat in the company of 150 medical school classmates and recited the Oath of Louis Lasagna, a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. Today, I was reminded that I will be repeating that same oath in less than three years during graduation as I listened to the new first year medical students recite the same oath.

The sea of white coats spoke in unison. As they recited, I looked through my lens, snapping photographs. Frame by frame, I was reminded of a time not so long ago, when I just arrived on the UCSF campus, bright eyed and blissfully unaware.

The Dean welcomed the Class of 2012 in the presence of the faculty members, whose names and faces I have come to know. Addressing the new students and their families, he reminded students that when you put the white coat on, you are "accepting a sacred responsibility to your patients."

When I think back to my White Coat Ceremony, I remember the excitement and joy of being coated in a pristine white coat. In my three inch black stilettos, I hobbled on the stage (in my mind I was nervous and anxious and kept telling myself not to trip and to imagine that the stage was like a runway). I must have been one of the harder students to coat (the added height must have made it hard to slip the coat on). My mind was racing, but when my name was called, I made my way to get my coat from my mentor, in what seemed like a blink of an eye.

According to the President of the UCSF Alumni Association, the first white coat was worn in a medical settings 150 years. Surgeons were the first to wear the white coat, a symbol of cleanliness and sterility. Community doctors soon followed, picking up the coat and taking up the aseptic look, in an initial attempt to differentiate the physicians from the quacks, in what he described as a "massive publicity stunt."

The white coat ceremony is certainly one of the milestones in my medical school career. Everyone was all smiles; and it was contagious to be around such a happy group of students and family members.

I had privilege of taking photographs, as the "unofficial photographer." As such, I was was given a second-row seat (right behind the faculty members) and the liberty to roam around the floor. That's one of the best things about being a photographer, you make your canvas and gain unique vantage points and access. I saw the ceremony partially through my camera lens and through my experience being the recipient of a white coat. I was vicariously reliving the experience in my mind (some parts as clear as day, others hazy, and others completely forgotten).

It was simply a pleasure to be a part of an event that is so special and central to the incoming students and their families.



As I watched the new medical students receive their coats, it was amazing to see the happiness and pride in their faces, a mix of disbelief, relief, and something to the effect of "I have no idea about what I'm getting myself into, but I've heard this medicine thing is supposed to be good." The families were both proud and excited. And it was a pleasure to watch the families congratulate their medical student and pose in the post-ceremony photographs.

It was not so long ago, when I was standing in those photographs smiling widely, unaware about what would happen next. A year later, I'm still smiling.

New medical students, welcome to the family of short white coats! Best of luck (the medical school honeymoon has ended and the real fun is just about to begin).

***

Oath of Louis Lasagna
"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."