The Transformative Experience of the White Coat

On Aug. 7, Georgetown University’s elegant Gaston Hall was filled with the newest members of the Georgetown School of Medicine, as well as hundreds of family and friends, for the White Coat Ceremony. The 197 students in the Class of 2013 gathered to recite the Hippocratic Oath for the first time and to be received into the medical profession by faculty, medical alumni and family members in a symbolic “coating” tradition. This is the 12th year that the School of Medicine has held the White Coat Ceremony. The event is a joyous occasion to recognize the academic talents of the new students and to continue a tradition that marks their entry into the field of medicine.

Dean for Medical Education Stephen Ray Mitchell, M.D., welcomed the crowd and spoke to the transformative power of the white coat. “[The white coat] has been not only a talisman of magic but prevention. It has a name. You thought the name was for the patient? It’s for you – to look down and remember who you are,” he said. He then asked students to reach into their pockets, where they found a triple-head stethoscope invented and donated by the late W. Proctor Harvey, M.D., a former faculty member, as well as a card with the name of an alumni sponsor who covered the cost of the coat.

Professor of Cardiology Donald Knowlan, M.D. (R’60, W’82, H’05), was the event’s keynote speaker, and he shared his experience of the dynamic field of medicine by listing the miracles of his generation as a medical student – penicillin and the tuberculosis vaccine – that are commonplace today. He affirmed the students’ choice as they begin the four-year journey to graduation: “Is medicine a good choice for a career? … It is the best profession in the world and this is the best time,” he said. “My question for the Class of 2013 is: Who among you will be performing the miracles of today as the ordinary of tomorrow?”

This year’s class hails from 30 states and territories and has made it through one of the nation’s most rigorous acceptance processes. The School of Medicine received 10,797 applications, with 440 students accepted. The 197 students who have entered the School of Medicine begin their careers “robed with the symbolic white coat, the sacred passage of the healing power” in the sage words of Dr. Knowlan.