I have been a first year medical student now for 10 months and have yet to post any pictures of the school. So here are some pictures that prove that I really am attending USUHS in Bethesda, MD.
Most medical school have what they call a "White
Coat Ceremony." This is the time when the students don their first white coat as a student Dcotor.. If you go to your primary health care provider, you may notice that they, too, are wearing a white coat. The reason for this is simply due to historical change in public expectation of medical doctors in America at the turn of the 20th century. As science began to develop into what it is today, the public began to expect their doctors to use the new tools of science to aid them in their diagnoses and treatment. In response to this expectation, medical doctors became scientists and as such adopted the lab coat as a way to symbolize to their patients that they were current on the science of the day. Silly? Of course, but that is history. Most medical schools give their students a white coat when they first show up for school, but here at USUHS, they wait until near the close of the first year.
So this is me with my fellow Air Force students (Army in the distance - followed by Navy [not seen]) waiting for the ceremony to begin.
The ceremony was short, but the speaker did a great job. He was trained as a general surgeon after he completed medical school but decided to serve for a short time with the Army Special Forces. During that time he realized that he would never return to surgery - he loved serving as a medical officer in command with his fellow soldiers. He talked about how being a military medical officer means that as physicians in the Armed Forces, our "Coat" will not always be white. It may at times be blue, green, tan, or camouflage. Whatever the uniform we are wearing, our mission is one and the same, to care for those in need. This is us listening to his speech.
Many students had family members "coat" them. When I talked to Jari about this she replied by saying with a smile, "You get yourself dressed every single morning. There is no reason you can't get yourself dressed now." She had a point. So I had every intention of putting on my own coat, but when I saw my Army friend Jeff Hoffman standing by himself I told him that we should coat each other. He simply smiled and said, "Sounds good." As it turned out, I am glad Jari did not coat me because it allowed her to take pictures while I did what my parents trained me to do - get dressed :)
And there you go! I was surprised at how nice it felt to put the coat on. I've been in uniform for the last year and been to the clinic on several occasions to interview patients, but having the coat was a very nice addition. I was happy to have I,t as were all of my classmates. If they only knew how Jari had to work some magic to make things happen...the office in the school in charge of ordering supplies - and in this case, our coats with the patches - forgot to order the coats even though we were measured for them on one of our first days of school... Jari did a great job at encouraging them to make up for the lost time. :-)
After we put on our coast, we took the Hippocratic Oath one more time (we did this at the beginning of the year. It was a nice reminder of why we study so hard.
Here is a close-up of the pocket. I ordered a name tag that read Frederick Nielson on it, but the office needed another name tag for demonstration purposes so one of Jari's co-workers suggested that they order me another one that wasn't so proper. Fred was the solution to that. I guess it will be nice to be able to switch the name tag. That way I can be Fred in the Family Medicine clinic or in the Pediatric clinic, but when I am rotating in Surgery or Internal Medicine I can have a more "official" name. Thanks, Mom and Dad for such flexibility!
Here we are after the ceremony. Jari did a great job to help make it a success and I am very proud of the work she put into the event. With over 460 guests in attendance, and under the threat of rain storms, she helped plan a great event. She really is great.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to have any face time with the audience during the ceremony. She just got to sit and enjoy it with the rest of the guests. It was fun seeing everyone's family there (for those who came). Some of my classmates look just like their parents and so now I know what they will look like 20-30 years from now :)
This is Dr. Moores (at left) and Dr. MacDonald. They work in the Office of Student Affairs with Jari. I say hello to them about once a day as I enter the office to meet up with Jari for lunch. These two act as counselors of sorts for the 3rd and 4th-year students to help them know what they would best like to specialize in after they graduate from USUHS. They are both really nice people so I thought it appropriate to take a picture with them.
Overall it was a great ceremony. With all the hours of studying the kidneys, various regions of the brain, biochemistry, military applied physiology, and other topics in medical school - it is possible for one to forget why he or she spends all that time in a textbook. The ceremony served as a good reminder of the end goal of coming to medical school: train to be able to meet the needs of my future patients.
I have been a first year medical student now for 10 months and have yet to post any pictures of the school. So here are some pictures that prove that I really am attending USUHS in Bethesda, MD.
Most medical school have what they call a "White
Coat Ceremony." This is the time when the students don their first white coat as a student Dcotor.. If you go to your primary health care provider, you may notice that they, too, are wearing a white coat. The reason for this is simply due to historical change in public expectation of medical doctors in America at the turn of the 20th century. As science began to develop into what it is today, the public began to expect their doctors to use the new tools of science to aid them in their diagnoses and treatment. In response to this expectation, medical doctors became scientists and as such adopted the lab coat as a way to symbolize to their patients that they were current on the science of the day. Silly? Of course, but that is history. Most medical schools give their students a white coat when they first show up for school, but here at USUHS, they wait until near the close of the first year.
So this is me with my fellow Air Force students (Army in the distance - followed by Navy [not seen]) waiting for the ceremony to begin.
The ceremony was short, but the speaker did a great job. He was trained as a general surgeon after he completed medical school but decided to serve for a short time with the Army Special Forces. During that time he realized that he would never return to surgery - he loved serving as a medical officer in command with his fellow soldiers. He talked about how being a military medical officer means that as physicians in the Armed Forces, our "Coat" will not always be white. It may at times be blue, green, tan, or camouflage. Whatever the uniform we are wearing, our mission is one and the same, to care for those in need. This is us listening to his speech.
Many students had family members "coat" them. When I talked to Jari about this she replied by saying with a smile, "You get yourself dressed every single morning. There is no reason you can't get yourself dressed now." She had a point. So I had every intention of putting on my own coat, but when I saw my Army friend Jeff Hoffman standing by himself I told him that we should coat each other. He simply smiled and said, "Sounds good." As it turned out, I am glad Jari did not coat me because it allowed her to take pictures while I did what my parents trained me to do - get dressed :)
And there you go! I was surprised at how nice it felt to put the coat on. I've been in uniform for the last year and been to the clinic on several occasions to interview patients, but having the coat was a very nice addition. I was happy to have I,t as were all of my classmates. If they only knew how Jari had to work some magic to make things happen...the office in the school in charge of ordering supplies - and in this case, our coats with the patches - forgot to order the coats even though we were measured for them on one of our first days of school... Jari did a great job at encouraging them to make up for the lost time. :-)
After we put on our coast, we took the Hippocratic Oath one more time (we did this at the beginning of the year. It was a nice reminder of why we study so hard.
Here is a close-up of the pocket. I ordered a name tag that read Frederick Nielson on it, but the office needed another name tag for demonstration purposes so one of Jari's co-workers suggested that they order me another one that wasn't so proper. Fred was the solution to that. I guess it will be nice to be able to switch the name tag. That way I can be Fred in the Family Medicine clinic or in the Pediatric clinic, but when I am rotating in Surgery or Internal Medicine I can have a more "official" name. Thanks, Mom and Dad for such flexibility!
Here we are after the ceremony. Jari did a great job to help make it a success and I am very proud of the work she put into the event. With over 460 guests in attendance, and under the threat of rain storms, she helped plan a great event. She really is great.
Lucky for her, she didn't have to have any face time with the audience during the ceremony. She just got to sit and enjoy it with the rest of the guests. It was fun seeing everyone's family there (for those who came). Some of my classmates look just like their parents and so now I know what they will look like 20-30 years from now :)
This is Dr. Moores (at left) and Dr. MacDonald. They work in the Office of Student Affairs with Jari. I say hello to them about once a day as I enter the office to meet up with Jari for lunch. These two act as counselors of sorts for the 3rd and 4th-year students to help them know what they would best like to specialize in after they graduate from USUHS. They are both really nice people so I thought it appropriate to take a picture with them.
Overall it was a great ceremony. With all the hours of studying the kidneys, various regions of the brain, biochemistry, military applied physiology, and other topics in medical school - it is possible for one to forget why he or she spends all that time in a textbook. The ceremony served as a good reminder of the end goal of coming to medical school: train to be able to meet the needs of my future patients.
Comments
Yay Fred for sticking it out (not like you had a choice, right?) and keeping to the books. Yay Jari for helping to get things organized and set up and on time. And yay for getting it all up on the blog so that we all could enjoy it too!
And that little medical history lesson was also fun. I never really thought of why doctors wear the white lab coats. Cool. :)