The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) Class of 2030, whose members represent 63 colleges and universities in 32 states and eight countries, participated in the White Coat Ceremony on July 24.
Each new medical student received a short, white coat embroidered in black with their name and the medical school’s name at the end of their weeklong orientation, marking their entry into four years of intensive physician training.
Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Vanderbilt Health and Dean of VUSM, received his own white coat at Vanderbilt as a member of the VUSM Class of 1990. He told the audience this year’s ceremony was especially poignant for him.
“This year, the ceremony holds special meaning to me as I’m retiring this December after 18 years as Dean of our medical school and as CEO of a rather large learning laboratory … Vanderbilt University Medical Center,” he said. “It goes without saying there’s something special about the education of physicians. And the responsibility of a medical school goes well beyond imparting knowledge. The white coat ceremony symbolizes this.
“It’s not just the scientific rigor medicine requires, but our work to instill a professional character that earns patient trust. After two decades, my goal was to leave you with a medical school that does this and yet something more. We have the luxury of being a relatively small medical school that dwells inside one of the nation’s largest and most influential academic medical centers. That positions us to forge a very special kind of physician that goodness knows we need now more than ever — physicians who are leaders.”
The white coats symbolize this higher calling, he told the medical students.
“All of us — faculty, your families and your future patients are depending on you to lead us into the future. Put simply, we believe in you.”
Donald Brady, MD, Executive Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Executive Vice President for Educational and Medical Staff Affairs, likened the students’ medical school experience to the recent FIFA World Cup. But while only Spain was the final victor of the soccer tournament, upsetting Argentina with a single goal, Brady told the students he would be celebrating every one of them as winners.
“And this is not a participation trophy,” he emphasized. “You will work for it, and you will be a great doctor when you finish.”
Brady told the students they must engage both their heads and their hearts when it comes to their education and future practice as physicians. He advised that they have to use their heads to learn, but they also need to employ their hearts to demonstrate integrity and compassion for their patients.
Brady thanked all the VUSM alumni, family and friends for their unfailing support of the medical students. He also expressed gratitude to the more than 330 white coat donors whose contributions provided the coats, as well as support for programming for student well-being throughout the medical school experience.
Additional faculty participating in the ceremony were William Cutrer, MD, MEd, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education; Amy Fleming, MD, MHPE, Senior Associate Dean for Medical Student and Alumni Affairs; Cathleen Pettepher, PhD, Associate Dean for Medical Student Progress and Success; Kim Vinson, MD, Associate Dean for Medical Student Affairs; and Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, Senior Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Community Health and Engagement.
Faculty members Ban Allos, MD, and Luke Finck, EdD, MA, co-chairs of the Class of 2030 Admissions Committee, read the names of the white coat recipients. Mentors of the four colleges of VUSM led the faculty and medical students in a recitation of the Oath for Teachers and Learners of Medicine at Vanderbilt at the conclusion of the ceremony.
