University of Minnesota Medical School 2019 White Coat Ceremony

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the beginning [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello please be seated welcome class of 2023 and welcome parents grandparents partners spouses children friends relatives faculty and staff what a special day my name is Bob Englander and I'm the associate dean for undergraduate medical education I'm delighted to be your emcee today I'm gonna first start with the pleasure of introducing the vice dean for education and academic fair Affairs dr. mark Rosenberg a Dean polar education leaders faculty advisors faculty students and guests I want to warmly welcome you the class of 2023 to the University of Minnesota Medical School we are pleased you have chosen our school and we look forward to working with you over the next four years and beyond you have all accomplished much in your lives and you deserve to be here a special welcome to all guests students will benefit from your ongoing support and companionship during their journey through medical education I encourage you to provide opportunities for students to escape the rigors of medical school personally I've always viewed medicine as a dream profession I graduated from the University of Manitoba medical school the other U of M in 1979 and will actually be attending my 40th class reunion in September I did start when I was 10 [Music] I have been and continued to be fascinated by medicine almost every working day medicine has also introduced me to the look the two loves of my life my wife who I met on the wards of University of Minnesota Hospital when I was an intern and she was an ICU nurse it does happen and and the kidney which is the area of medicine I specialized in for many reasons I refrain from ranking these two loves medicine is a profession that combines human service with fascinating science and often pushes physicians to their limits of insight and creativity also medicine is a big tent with many career options including primary care specialty medicine research public health health policy and many others all of you will eventually find the area that fits best with your interests and personality I encourage you the class of 2023 to be engaged in your medical education your ideas and opinions matter to us and we will regularly seek and value your input as we work to continuously improve our medical school also please be supportive of your classmates look out for them be there to listen to their challenges and to celebrate their accomplishments we are all in this together and we need to help each other in any way we can let me close by offering advice from William Osler who is considered the father of modern medicine older was a Canadian physician who is credited with being the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall to the bedside for clinical training other stated the good physician treats the disease the Great Physician treats the patient who has the disease thank you and welcome thank you so much dr. Rosenberg I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge everyone who's on the stage with us today they are our medical school Dean and vice dean who you just heard from associate and assistant Dean's of the medical school faculty advisors honored fourth-year medical students from whom you will hear shortly and representatives from the medical community of Minnesota I also want to notice special thanks to dr. Ryan Greiner president of the Twin Cities Medical Society and miss Ruth Perry at CEO of the Twin Cities Medical Society for the gift of a medical pen light and a pupil gauge for each student and to the University of Minnesota physicians and Medical School alumni for the gift of a stethoscope for each of our students I'd also like to recognize the alumni of the Medical School in attendance today and thank them for their great support of this wonderful Medical School alumni if you are able I'd ask you to stand and let's give them all a round of applause [Applause] since the white coat ceremony tradition of the University of Minnesota started somewhere in the 1990s I won't ask you how many of you were actually in the ceremony because that might give too much away there are a number of staff and faculty today from the Medical School in the audience as well we want to thank them for all the work they do to make this Medical School the great place that it is as I told the students yesterday it takes a village to make a physician a special thank you also to the University of medical school admissions committee for bringing together an outstanding class of future physicians and to the associate dean for admissions dimple Patel thank you as always you did an amazing job finally I'd like to thank members of the orientation planning committee especially Scott Davenport James Cooper Mary Anne waters Scott Slattery Diane Henin Sarah Roberts Colleen Haase Michael Kim Jaime Larson Mary Tait Mary Ann Riley Spong and second-year medical student Morgan Turk for their help literally all summer long planning the special event in addition to nine days of other activities that occurred this week so thank you to all of them now it's my pleasure to introduce dr. Anne Pereira assistant dean for curriculum who's going to tell you about the history of the white coat ceremony I will say I did not have a white coat ceremony so that will date me into the mid 90s good afternoon this is a day of celebration and anticipation for the University of Minnesota Medical School entering class of 2019 and today we want to thank you the families and friends of these students for raising these new physicians with your love and support and for nurturing in them the values that led them to this journey today we in the profession accept the responsibility to nurture these values in their professional development first a brief history of the white coat ceremony in the late 1980s dr. Arnold Gould a pediatric neurologist at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and his wife Sandra a professional educator established the Gould foundation as they described to nurture and preserve the tradition of the caring physician for they feared that technological advances were shifting the focus in the practice of medicine from caring for the patient to an over reliance on technology five years later and more than 25 years ago the gold foundation introduced the white coat ceremony our school was one of the early adopters of this ceremony that is now performed at over 95 percent of medical schools in the country its purpose is to welcome students into the profession to begin their journey with an oath to obligate them to high professional standards for patient care and the practice of medicine these standards focus on the development of the humanistic physician one who demonstrates integrity clinical excellence altruism respect empathy humility and service dr. Gould said the real meaning of the white coat ceremony is in the words of the oath any oath that outlines the path medical students are about to take it is the very beginning when they are still very idealistic and energetic the white coat is just a symbol it is an honorary and physical embrace from your colleagues it is a hug and a blessing and it holds the pin the pin is a talisman a palpable reminder of your commitment during rough times of the purpose it also shows others what path you are on the oath you will take today was written by you unique to your class and it to conserve as a reminder of your commitment to this profession I had the privilege this week of meeting some of you during your orientation as always you inspired me I met future physicians with commitment to integrity clinical excellence altruism respect empathy humility and service I am deeply honored to be part of this community with your class in 2014 on the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the white coat ceremony Columbia students were asked what they hope to remember from the ceremony and one quote particularly embodies my hope for all of you the student responded I hope I am able to remember the mix of emotions and thoughts that I experienced and attempted to reconcile that day I first felt pride that I had finally arrived at Medical School but at the same time I felt a fear a fear of the vastness of the large tradition in front of me the difficulty of Medicine at times and my desire to maintain the energy hope empathy and optimism overwhelmingly I felt an incredible warmth from those all around me the white coat ceremony truly reminded me of the power of the profession of Medicine the journey is long deeply rewarding and at times not easy this work is a tremendous privilege were granted the privilege of partnering with our patients to improve their health and well-being remember this embrace of the profession welcome to our community you belong here we are here to support you in the work ahead and to walk with you welcome [Applause] thank you for those beautiful words doctor Pereira being elected into the gold humanism Honor Society is truly an honor I'd like to invite Abigail Snaith and Michelle Graff woman fourth year medical students and gold humanism Honor Society members to share their thoughts on this momentous occasion after hearing their speech I am certain you will understand why their classmates thought they so wonderfully represent the humanist side of Medicine Abbi and Michelle thank you welcome everybody my name is Michelle Graff woman and I'm Abby Smith we are fourth-year medical school students here as members and representatives of the gold humanism Honor Society this society comprised of medical school students residents fellows role model physician educators and others who demonstrate excellence in humanistic clinical care leadership compassion and dedication to service as members we strive to inspire and nurture humanism in other facilitating educational events and service opportunities that promote wellness and humanism in our medical community how many of you guys like puzzles gaining acceptance into medical school feels like putting together a puzzle your education volunteer research and work experiences represent the pieces and now you may believe that your puzzle is finally complete however medical school is a journey that will add even more pieces to your individual beautiful puzzle today as others have already mentioned you start to develop a really important aspect of your identity today your dreams of caring for others are being realized however you still have a journey ahead of you and it will likely prove to be a difficult one I urge you to embrace that journey and engage yourself fully in your medical training because it is truly an amazing profession however I also encourage you to remember the other aspects of your life remember that your puzzle contains a hundred pieces and medicine is only one it's okay to get wrapped up in your courses and eventually your rotations and it's expected that you will give them your all but you will be a better person a better sister or brother a better friend and truly a better doctor because of your other interests I'm sure you've been hearing about well-being throughout orientation and you may be thinking great another talk on prioritizing hobbies and loved ones yes I am going to talk about that again but I hope to give it a new spin in fact I have proof that keeping up with your other interests will not only help your well-being but your work as a physician as well a study was done in 2017 on 36 first-year medical students at the University of Pennsylvania half of the students participated in six one and a half hour art observation training sessions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the other half received a membership to the museum but did not participate in those lessons all the students were tested both before and after the art training sessions on their ability to describe images both of art and clinical items in particular eyes they were assessed on their observations interpretations flexibility of thinking comparisons and more the researchers found that those students who had received formal art training scored significantly higher on those assessments than those who did not have such training so there you have it evidence that having and maintaining interests outside of medicine can actually improve medical reasoning and our ability to connect with our patients this study was specific to ophthalmology and visual art however I truly believe that the results can be applied to a number of specialties and situations in a response to the study David Epstein and Malcolm Gladwell seemed to agree they wrote taking would be physicians out of the hospital and into a museum taking them out of their own worlds and into a different one made them better physicians to add to this evidence they compared Nobel prize-winning scientists to the general public and found that Nobel laureates are 22 times more likely to have serious hobbies into which they invest significant time outside of their work these individuals have made great strides in science in part because they are able to draw on unique experiences outside of their fields I see three ways that these other pieces of our puzzles contribute to our work as physicians one we have enhanced descriptive and observational skills which enable us to be more astute practitioners too we have more things potentially in common with our patients if we have lives outside of Medicine and three we have a greater understanding of different perspectives and viewpoints which enables us to listen to our patients and understand what they are going through in your journey to becoming a physician remember that your patients are also puzzles however the correct medical diagnosis only represents a few pieces of each patient's puzzle providing care with compassion and treating patients respectfully are also important pieces of both patients and providers puzzles with this in mind I founded the Gopher buddies program this program pairs a medical school student with a child who has a complex medical condition the medical student gets to know the child and his or her family in a non clinical setting my gopher buddy Charlie was born with holoprosencephaly in a condition where the brain does not divide into two hemispheres at birth her chance of survival was only 3% however she was five years old when I first met her I thought holoprosencephaly would define her as Charlie had quadriplegia was deaf and was legally blind she communicated through sign language and a specialized computer colon purlin safley was only one piece of her puzzle she had a wicked sense of humor and was extremely smart she loved to tell me she didn't like me with her computer while simultaneously signing I like you as she laughed hysterically another piece of her puzzle was being a teacher Charlie taught me that a medical condition does not define a person nor should it define the preconceived notions and limit your perception of his or her abilities she taught me the great power of a smile and to take joy in the little things I also learned the importance of acknowledging the patient in the room first regardless of his or her medical condition the puzzle pieces Charlie added to my own puzzle Wilfer ever influence the way that I practice medicine throughout medical school you two will have countless opportunities for patients and teachers to add pieces to your puzzle embrace them all when you receive your white coat today you will find a puzzle piece inside one of the pockets this piece is unique just like each of you we hope you keep this with you to signify that medicine is just one piece of your much larger puzzle let it remind you to continue doing things you love as you pursue a career in medicine let it demonstrate for you that you are surrounded by other pieces of a puzzle and medicine for when we work together we can accomplish more than we can on our own let it show you that a diagnosis or a disease is only one part of your patient and inspire you to learn more about them finally may the puzzle piece remind you that there is always more to learn and in learning there are many more beautiful pieces to be created we want to leave you with a quote from the neuroscientist and artist Santiago Ramon Iike Hall he said to him who observes them from afar it appears as though they are scattering and dissipating their energies while in reality they are challenging and strengthening them thank you so thank you Michelle and Abby I have to say that was a special moment for me I was reflecting as you were talking on the fact that I entered with your class so my first white coat ceremony at the University of Minnesota was when Abby and Michelle were receiving their white coats and what a joy and a privilege to watch the transformation and how excited I am for the class of 2023 to watch that transformation over the next three to four years you do us proud thank you I have the great pleasure now and distinct honor of providing your keynote address what a privilege it is indeed on this most special and sake occasion first and foremost I want to offer my congratulations you've already made it through a difficult course and over many hurdles to join an elite group of students who are about to begin their professional careers in medicine across the country you should also be congratulated for picking what I think remains a most noble profession even as times change considerably and even as we are faced with reinventing the profession to match the emerging needs of the public in the 21st century I've always been grateful for and sure of my decision to enter this field I wish for all of you that you can say the same thing some 36 years from now which is the duration of time since I sat in those chairs figuratively in my first days of medical school what I want to talk to you about today is perhaps not a typical topic for a white coat ceremony keynote and that is the topic of love but before I get started I want to ask each of the students here to take a couple of minutes to reflect on why you are here in the deepest sense what motivated you to come to medical school what factor or factors resulted in your sitting in these seats today dig deep and keep asking why if for example your first answer is well because my mom was a doctor then ask why her being a doctor impacted you enough to want to go through the rigors of be getting into medical school and if the answer is because you saw how happy and fulfilled she was in her career then ask why was she so happy and fulfilled what was it about this career in just a moment I'm gonna actually ask the students to get yourself into pairs and share with your partner what that primary motivator was for you when you decided to pursue becoming a doctor and I want your partner to ask you at least two probing wise until you really get to the root of the reason you're here today for the faculty I invite you to take these minutes to reflect on and perhaps share with a neighbor what motivated you to enter the field of medicine what sustains that motivation what brings you joy and fulfillment in your work and for the wonderful friends and family members in the audience why do you think the student that you're here with today chose this profession how do you think while they're talking upfront they're answering that question of why so starting now for minutes two minutes for each person go [Music] they said they'd be a kind of terrible okay I'll ask you to bring the conversations to a close I'm sorry you're also shy and have nothing to say now if I asked you each to stand up and answer individually we might not finish the white coat ceremony in the first semester so instead what I'm going to do is name a few categories and I'm going to ask you to raise your hand if your primary motivator the real root cause of why you're here was related to the following how many of you cited a relationship as your primary motivator perhaps with someone in health care a patient to teacher a doctor how many of you are here motivated I gotta love this the only time I ever use my phone and a say is for the alarm it's now going off it's exactly four minutes sorry how many of you are here motivated primarily by your ability to excel in math and science okay how many of you mentioned the desire to heal and care for others is your primary motivator okay how many of you cited the ability being engaged in health care-related discovery as your primary motivator great how many of you were driven here by your excitement over the preparation chemistry physics biology the MCATs and finally how many of you were driven by the economics of health care the opportunity for a good and stable income please don't raise your hands so I think for those of you in the audience who could see you'll see the reason you were here is predominantly your desire to bring meaning to your careers through relationships yet much of medical education in the 20th century and even into the 21st century is really focused on science now please don't misrepresent misinterpret my emphasis I'm not debasing or dismissing the importance of science but I am suggesting that the scientific foundations are a means to an end and not the end themselves the end is much more related to the human aspects we just enumerated healing relationships and caring and I would argue that underline all those motivators is the power of love love is a difficult word in the English language the single word expresses a spectrum of definitions the Greek language presents us with four types of love all rooted in the Bible filial love from the greek philia represents the close love of friendship eros represents physical sensual love storge represents familial love as the bond between mothers fathers sisters and brothers and finally agape represents unconditional selfless and sacrificial love for the purposes of our discussion today I suppose what I am most getting it is the concept of love as represented by that latter term agape perhaps closest to the English term loving-kindness in preparing this talk I came across a beautiful Buddhist poem by the on the on the concept of loving kindness by chin hung the title of the poem is Metta which comes from the Buddhist tradition and means the benevolence towards all beings without discrimination that is free of self attachment it is a strong sincere wish for the happiness of all beings the concept of of metas elucidated by Chen Han captures my understanding of loving-kindness so I'd like to share with you her poem stemming from within we all have a gift to share a gentle smile a comforting touch every moment cultivating a boundless heart towards all beings with loving kindness in the face of aversion confronted with old hurts that is when kindness eludes us the most as we put up barriers we forsake others we abandon love and eventually we forget deep down inside there are parts of us we try to hide even from ourselves the things we are not proud of our mistakes our fears our own vulnerabilities just as we shut them away so too do we close ourselves off from those who remind us of our imperfection we lose sight of our aspiration loving kindness in its purest form comes from acceptance and embracing ourselves for who we are and in that learn to love others wholeheartedly and judging ly and unconditionally without justification and condemnation this way the barriers melt away allowing love and kindness to shine in its entirety Metta having shared with you the basis for my attention to love today that it in many ways underscores the why you are all here and having examined the working definition of loving-kindness we will use so beautifully expressed by Jin hyung I want to turn now to a brief look at medical education over the past century so I can frame for you the place of love in the course of becoming a doctor most of what we do today is based on the work of the work of a man named Abraham Flexner a great educator who in 1910 wrote a treatise on the state of medical education in the United States and Canada he lambasted the attention the lack of attention sorry to science and the lack of standards for medical education at the time you might be surprised here that most medical schools were for-profit unless the major factor for admission was actually wealth as you can imagine the result was an absence of quality control over the educational process and many schools produced quite literally quacks now I'm happy to report this was not the case for the majority of large university based schools such as ours flexures work resulted in a dramatic change in medical education over the ensuing 25 years including the prerequisites for medical at medical school that you even had to go to college you had to have chemistry biology and physics and the two-by-two structure we currently have with the first two years of medical school focused on the foundational sciences and the last two on the clinical sciences the focus then while elevating standards was still on what the curriculum should be but without any attention to the outcomes expected of students who completed those requirements towards the end of the 20th century educators began to realize that this structure of medical education and training and the uniform focus on knowledge and patient care skills was producing graduates who were not prepared to meet the demands of residency and residency graduates unprepared to meet the needs of practice over the past 15 years we've turned to a system of competency-based medical education in which we actually start by delineating the competencies doctors need to care for patients in the 21st century and then we have those outcomes drive our curriculum this movement started in Graduate Medical Education for residents and has only recently begun to shape changes at the nation's medical schools the notion of a 21st century physician now includes eight major domains of competence knowledge for practice yes you still need medical knowledge and patient care skills but also professionalism interpersonal and communication skills systems based practice practice based learning and improvement interprofessional collaboration and personal and professional development now I appreciate that these domains move the conversation forward enormous Lee compared to the late 20th century when I told you the focus was really almost exclusively on knowledge and patient care skills in fact I have personally committed the scholarly portion of my life to competency-based medical education and I am thus invested in teaching and assessing the competencies but even though I'm certain that we will vastly improve health care if we can dedicate ourselves to ensuring that physicians demonstrate these competencies from Medical School through certification and practice there's something that leaves me wanting as I talk about the competency domains and their requisite competencies I've pondered why the current state leaves me wanting and I want to share a story with you from about six years ago that was my personal aha moment I'm lucky enough to be part I'm lucky enough to be part of an amazing learning community of interprofessional health care educators dedicated to catalyzing improvement in health care seventy five to ninety members of the community gather every summer for a week in a beautiful setting on a lake in Vermont each day we sit with a different contingent of the participants one day I was sitting next to an erudite gentleman named JJ Steinberg he was a puppies pathologist and was residency program director at the time the assignment was to think of an educational program we had developed successfully and reflect on why we thought it was successful with a glow in his eyes he spoke about how he had taken the pathology program from a point of especially low morale and turned it around as the active listener I was prompted to ask why he thought he had been successful and without missing a beat he said to me love it all starts with love Bob as we spoke together I tried to untangle what he really meant at the heart of that statement and I think it was this a great program in pathology or any other specialty for that matter has to start from a place of love loving what he was doing loving the residents loving being a part of their growth and loving the patients who would be on the receiving end of that growth I've thought often of his statement and the implications of quote it starts with love end quote love was literally for JJ the most important foundational ingredient for success in reflecting back on my own career and the role models who've made the biggest difference I realized how much starting with love was at the heart of what moved me witness Bob Gifford Dean of Student Affairs at Yale while I was a medical student I was lucky enough to have dr. Gifford as my 1st attending on a six-week internal medicine rotation to encounters standout for me the first was mrs. Brown a woman in her 50s who was homeless schizophrenic brilliant and charming she was admitted for pneumonia in an oxygen requirement and she was also noted to have lice on admission I embarrassingly remember being a bit disturbed by the lice and always feeling and itching in my scalp on entry or departure from the room the first time we went in as a team I will never forget dr. Gifford going right to the bedside sitting in a chair and taking mrs. Brown's hand in his as I presented the medical facts of her presentation he remained focused on her throughout and I watched her paranoia melt away as he held her hand and watched her mitigating as I inevitably stumbled through some of the presentation I mostly remember the true power of his loving kindness how non-judgmental he was of her circumstances and how he treated her with the deepest respect when I returned to her later her room later she said in her affected southern accent I simply love that dr. Gifford he's so handsome and smart please tell him I said so later I saw dr. Gifford and told him about my conversation with mrs. Brown and he responded and I loved her too he went on to lament our society has allowed her to be homeless noting that while we could certainly help with the pneumonia in her life there was so much more we could do to help her heal by the time she was ready for discharge dr. Gifford had made sure that she had a place to go to recuperate and insurance in place to get the mental health services she desperately needed the second encounter that stands out started one morning when dr. Gifford asked the medical students on the team if we would like to go to his Rheumatology clinic and I jumped at the chance I remember standing outside a patient's door and dr. Gifford prepared us that we were about to see an elderly woman crippled by rheumatoid arthritis that she had had for many years he spoke of how despite the natural progression of her disease and their limited ability to slow or halt it she never missed an appointment and she was always very positive he said he loved this woman and her immutable positivity despite her disease and that he was always excited to see her on the schedule there must have been about 10 of us accompanying him in his clinic and I happened to be at the front of the pack on the way in her face lit up with a smile as we entered and she saw dr. Gifford again he sat next to her on the examining table with a hand on her shoulder or on her hand the entire time the two of them caught up in the interval history as if no one else was in the room then they spoke about her life how she was feeling otherwise what was happening with her kids and her grandchildren and how she had been coping with the disease dr. Gifford had no new treatments to offer nor hope for a cure and was honest with her about their limited ability to change the treatment or the outcome I'll never forget what she said after that dr. Gifford just seeing you every three months is treatment enough for me he blushed and smiled and told her how much he loved seeing her as well as I had been the first to enter the room I was the last to leave and as I walked by the examining table where the patient was sitting I felt a faience tiny little tug on my arm I turned to see her hand crippled with arthritis on the sleeve of my own proudly worn white coat she motioned for me to come close and lean near my ear and she stated son if you can be one-tenth the doctor that dr. Gifford is you will have a shining career that was about 33 years ago and I can remember her and the moment as if it was yesterday I've reflected often on that day and I in her comment and wondered what is it that would lead a patient to make such a profound and loving statement about her physician and the only thing I've come up with that separated truly separated dr. Gifford from the many other extremely bright and competent supervisors I've had in medical school was his loving kindness he truly loved his patients and he did not judge to the contrary he marveled in their tenacity in the face of very difficult medical and social conditions so I want to say upfront that while I've just provided two anecdotes I'm not from the anecdotal School of Medicine the power of the story is potent but I remain an empiricist to some degree and I want to note that there is ample evidence that healing is a combination of our ever-increasing prowess and diagnosis and treatment and the many human factors that strongly affect our biology studies show clearly that patients whose physicians demonstrate higher empathy have better outcomes other studies have shown the compassion prayer and loving relationships have a positive effect on healing now at this point I've really only focused on the importance of love in the physician patient relationship but love and loving kindness applies to all of our relationships it is core to who we are and how we exist in the world the take-home message to me is that to truly have and give love you need to start with yourself to exhibit loving kindness towards oneself is not always easy we especially I think in the medical profession tend to be our own harshest critics but if we can't extend the warm embrace of loving-kindness to ourselves how can we possibly do so for others let's revisit the words of chin hung loving-kindness and its purest form comes from acceptance and embracing ourselves for who we are and in that learn to love others wholeheartedly and judging ly and unconditionally without justification and condemnation this way the barriers melt away allowing loving and love and kindness to shine in its entirety Metta now that we've spoken for the past few minutes about loving-kindness in the context of competencies required of a physician both in their interactions with patients and with themselves it begs the question is loving-kindness a requisite competency to be a physician you might be surprised to hear me to say that my answer is no but I don't think loving kindness is a competency competencies are requisite abilities of physicians that can and must be taught and measured I don't see loving-kindness that way a common refrain is that not all that can be measured is meaningful and not all that is meaningful is measurable this is an instance of the latter I see loving kindness is an aspirational core attribute central to who we seek to be as humans both in and outside of our work loving kindness is for me a continuous challenge that requires explicit reflection and action course corrections and an openness to strive for an ideal even knowing how elusive that ideal might be so I hope that you all will aspire to loving kindness especially in these trying times where judgment and other are so prevalent and malignant you can start with the whitecoats at the ceremony today each time you Don your white coat starting today I will hope that you will think of it the coat of loving-kindness but what health care look like if the last thought for every doctor before we entered an examination room or hospital room or office to meet a patient was about loving kindness unconditional love and as you accept your white coats today I wish for all of you this may you spend your lifetimes learning and loving loving your chosen profession loving the peers who've also embarked on this journey with you loving your many teachers who will teach you both what you want to be and what you don't want to be loving your patients each of whom shares the gift of their lives with you loving your families and friends who have most assuredly played a large role in your being here today and loving and caring for yourselves so that you can reach your greatest potential and find joy and fulfillment along the way and may all of us be at least one tenth the doctor that dr. Gifford is it's been a privilege to address you at your white coat ceremony I can only think of one way to end this talk and that is with love thank you thank you thank you so much and I now go back to my MC role so in honor of community physicians I would like to introduce dr. Ryan Greiner president of the Twin Cities Medical Society to share his thoughts on this occasion thanks and you know what a great message to follow I'll start with thanking the medical school it's distinguished faculty and and most importantly you all the next generation of Medicine thank you for dedicating your life to a challenging yet rewarding career I'd like to take a few moments to share my thoughts about the coming adventure and leave you with an impression that the Medical Society is your partner in this journey the profession of medicine offers this gateway to a life of imagination compassion interpersonal affirmation and technical expertise it offers the satisfaction of delayed gratification and the prospects of being and doing something unique and sought-after it brings the pride of one's family and the acknowledgement of achievement and most importantly it accentuates the vulnerable vulnerability of human life and invites you into its suffering and it's joy it is a life of commitment to a higher purpose and you are starting on that journey as you begin I would offer a bit of advice about the inevitable trials and tribulations that you will encounter alongside the joy and excitement of your practice each of us having gone before you have our own stories about when our compassion and empathy faltered or when we didn't live up to someone's expectations or when we felt like an impostor in a white coat share these experiences with each other care for one another have concern and ultimately find joy in your fellowship never forget that you are no different than the patient like them you are vulnerable emotional contemplative and introspective you have aspirations and fears you have doubt and conviction you can be selfish but also giving and altruistic and within that very humble recognition of the fellowship you share with your patient you will find the compassion and empathy to care for them and guide them to better health and well-being always remember that medicine without empathy and compassion is not medicine at all empathy and compassion are the driving force of everything that we do and are the protection from the cynicism and stress that create burnout and foster mental health disorders cultivate these emotions admire them teach them reinforce them and celebrate them find ways to remove barriers to their expression most importantly ask that your mentors and teachers value your vulnerability and appreciate the innocence of your compassion and empathy we are here to help you you are already a member of the Twin Cities Medical Society one of the longest standing institutions of organized medicine in Minnesota we are your champion your advocate and your partner your well-being is our priority your success is our aspiration please look to us as a place for your ideas use our services and programs to help you succeed both in celebration and in struggle and most importantly become involved the physician will always be recognized as a pillar of leadership in the community join us in continuing that tradition and work to fulfill your dreams for your future and beyond thank you thanks so much for those beautiful words dr. Greiner okay now comes the coding ceremony don't forget your puzzle pieces by the way so let me explain how we're going to conduct this coding ceremony our students are actually organized from their first day into learning communities by their faculty advisor groups and they're going to continue with these faculty advisor groups for the next four years so today we invite the faculty advisors to place the white coats on their students thus symbolically starting that journey I'm gonna ask something hard I'm gonna ask you to please hold the applause until they are all complete I know that's a hard thing to do we have three dignitaries who will read the students names miss dimple Patel associate dean for admissions dr. ann pereira assistant dean for curriculum and dr. michael kim assistant dean for student affairs additionally as they continue across the stage each student will be greeted by michelle graf lemon and abby smith who are distinguished gold humanism Honor Society speakers dr. Jacob toll our Dean of the medical school dr. mark Rosenberg vice dean for education academic affairs and dr. Ryan Grenier who you just met Twin Cities Medical Society I want to invite you to do one other thing look around right now and I think what you'll see is that it's hard other than the fact that you know they're all sitting in front it's hard to distinguish right now our medical students from the rest of the audience so this is a figurative welcome into the field of medicine but it's also a really cool literal welcome into the field of medicine and I want you to watch as the transformation occurs not just figuratively but literally as these rows of students who are similar to the rest of the audience start to slowly fill up with white coats and the look that that that ends at the end when they all have their white coats so please pay attention as we go through I'd like to start by inviting dr. aya news group were great and I would invite our dignitaries on the stage to take their places so the greeters will be to my left you will be to my right so the greeters to my left so dr. toloa and dr. Rosenberg I'm doing a fine job here and then I would invite dr. thank you Scott I see the group is getting up and then who's the first readers it's dr. Ferrer [Music] Dakotah Anderson [Music] Benjamin by Yoon [Music] Kristiana Johnson [Music] Mina Krenz [Music] Stuart lien [Music] Logan Gregory Peter [Music] Jacob Schaffer [Music] Megan SRAM ski [Applause] Kirstin snook [Music] [Applause] [Music] justice sprigs [Music] Gillian whoa the-- [Music] Lanza alley [Applause] [Music] Michelle burning [Music] Shandra boma head home [Music] J Kreger Aynsley crows [Music] Dominique Ireland [Music] Dalton Herrmann's a DEET Hernandez [Music] Christopher John's sauron Cantus aria unders lynn stead [Music] Andrea Maxwell [Music] Alexander Nelson Laura Padilla [Music] Michael Patterson [Music] Lauren Elise pens [Music] Aaron Schumacher [Music] Olivia Smith [Music] Jose Valentin Lopez [Music] Jacob walling [Music] David whoo [Music] Wyatt BB Houser Wagner [Music] Adam Bush Arab Paul choked [Music] Rachel Gallagher Michael Hagstrom [Music] Moosa was saying [Music] erika Caskey [Music] Nadia long van [Music] Allyson Raynham Perry Thea Sekar malavika sera sheesh it's rushed [Music] brandy Carl Berg Christian Matthew Hanna Lauren Harvey [Music] Gregory hooks [Music] Siana Keller [Music] Cameron Meyer Mueller Tasha Muhammad Anna true [Music] Lucas Rey [Music] Neal's August ridin [Music] Allyson viccellio [Music] Baili Abernathy [Music] Leah Ali Moo [Music] Nicholas Ebert trevor Killian [Music] Benjamin Co fed [Music] [Applause] Allisyn LaVon [Music] Adam Lord [Music] Thomas Marr craft [Music] ala Thea Prue [Music] Sophia Schmidt [Music] Megan Zeldin rust Jesse Abelson [Music] [Music] Mohammed I mean [Music] Alexandra Austin [Music] Aaron should we [Music] Brianna Kenneth Abigail Driscoll [Music] McKenzie Dutton [Music] Kylene and Grissom [Music] Luis hey [Music] Nathan holthouse David Krause [Music] Benedict Marin [Music] Katelyn Parsons Neha pot low-poly [Music] Michael Prairie [Music] Carly Rand [Music] Caitlin ripka [Music] can erase miss Griffin strike [Music] Andrew Tosh knee [Music] [Applause] [Music] Lauren Topor [Music] in Matthew Tran [Music] abdul-rahman Ahmed [Music] Oh Ellen proxy Joburg stead [Music] Brook Bremen [Music] John Butterfield [Music] Abhishek Chandra Andrea clinch [Music] Samantha Considine [Music] Carol Cuttino [Music] Kelsey Crowe Emily Kristin Curtis [Music] Nick de Beer on Zachary dent in Durban William Dyke Tina Gardner Michaela Hong Ben bong [Music] David Mayo Eman reed Johnson Drishti love Billy mwah [Music] Brandon O'Conner [Applause] [Music] that was a beam of lambda [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Madison okuno [Music] Katie Frampton [Music] Anna Rarick [Music] Alaura Sager [Music] Thomas Schumann [Music] Zaara shocker [Music] Catherine Shaughnessy Amy song [Music] [Music] Honore Thor [Music] Tannen topo [Music] Safa abdul qadir [Music] Mitchell butter Bob [Music] Dominic Durham [Music] Hadley French Ryan Giggs dead [Music] Jack goldstein [Music] anam Hasan [Music] Kyra cuz marchek [Music] Thomas Kaiser powers [Music] Christina kale and [Music] Thomas came [Music] Samantha king [Music] a manual okay Mattie [Music] [Laughter] [Music] prithi Prasad zareen Rahman Jenna Robinson Michael Schmitz [Music] Willis sugar [Music] grant Simonson [Music] Jesse Smith Mary Thomas grace Wilson [Music] Lindsay Amundsen [Music] Elizabeth babkin Matthew breeze [Music] Kary Mullis [Music] Rebeca Karuk [Music] John whoa [Music] Andrew Lyman Butler [Music] Shri Malik [Music] Amy Parkinson Benjamin Simpson [Music] Cynthia Jeong [Music] Oh see Rhema abbulu [Music] Alyssa Axelrod [Music] Ilhan Issei [Music] Emily Fellowes [Music] Tyler James gassmann [Music] Kayla Mackenzie common [Music] Kalib Hoover Madison Kelly [Music] Timothy young atcha [Music] Jamie chef oyster [Music] Jonathan biggert [Music] Gendo Daniel [Music] Cena goes Arion [Music] joy Harris [Music] sterilants [Music] Anna London [Music] Connor Neff Gerard Andre [Music] sarah Peller Aliyah sake or [Music] Emily and stock [Music] and Rachel's sweet [Music] [Applause] spectacular thank you yes in a moment thank you we have the oath first thank you congratulations class of 2023 one more round of applause for the class and just to emphasize that little transformation I'm going to ask just this once I want the class of 22 view to stand and face all of your family and friends and give them a round of applause for getting you to these seats today [Applause] awesome thank you there's a lot of love in the air today so as physicians we need to use all of our senses with when working with patients and the instruments you've received are the tools that allow us to extend those senses as listening is obviously one of the most important skills a physician should have I especially feel the stethoscope uniquely represents that need to listen to your patients for most of you your stethoscope will be an ever-present reminder of your position and status but let it also be a reminder of how we need to connect with our patients I would like to now invite for one of my favorite parts of this ceremony dr. Michael Kim assistant Dean of Student Affairs to lead you in the recitation of your oath all right we're eating together and I would vite any physician in the audience who would like to join along I'll get you started we'll read together and I'll let you finish we the University of Minnesota class of 2023 acknowledged the privilege to pursue the profession as a pledge to remain humble my limitations we needed I will have reference for the wisdom of I've seen a patient and their families have pledged to draw inspiration from my mentors nor any communication inside Spencer has tried to be a leader in the medical expertise to my patients excitation 20:23 pledged to maintain our commitment to progress beautifully-written hope so before we end in that oath was written by the students believe it or not and the collaborative effort this week and speaks I'm sure for all of you who are standing around including me who are going to be the recipients of their healthcare speaks very well for what our future holds so our distinguished Dean got to greet you all on Monday morning as the opening remarks and he's going to close out this very special week today so it is my distinct honor to introduce dr. Jacob toll our Dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School to leave you with some closing well I did one better because I saw you this lunch hour and it was a special pleasure to shake your hands twice a day yeah there's an art to it I am very honored as I told you and your families that you are joining our Medical School and I am very grateful to the team at the dean's office and this medical school the Dean Rosenberg Lander came Perea and everybody else who has joined us today for committing their professional lives and much of their personal lives to you because we are we know something you don't not the knowledge but we know that you will come out of this auditorium and come back in four hours different people we no longer think of education as a transmission of knowledge sort of a transfusion of knowledge we think of it as a transmitting values core beliefs transforming people into who you will become that you are not yet there so it takes a moment and it is a reflection of the fact that you are for the first time in white coats and the significance of this should be a little bit triggering a reflection of sorts and sort of you know what is it what does it feel like to have for the first time a white count on you what does it feel like reciting the oath what does it feel like to starting really starting on a path to be a physician a healer a doctor a partner to your patients so when you do that when you start earning that privilege and it takes years and it in fact it takes decades to get get that remember this feeling because this is exactly what it feels if you make a diagnosis that changes somebody's life that you design a treatment there's never existed before that you perhaps will fight our way of treating a complication or a disease that has been incurable and totally impossible to deal with with the modern medicine that is what you gonna feel in slightly different way but in the same depth and intensity when you console a family at the end of life and this all will hinge on several things I was truly impressed with Abby and Michelle I told you that was really brilliant the puzzle metaphor is exactly right because the humanities the arts the other parts of you sports for that matter will be tremendously important in your ability to be a physician I'm a bone marrow transplant physician and oncologist and if I have a new family new patient the treatment itself that's trivial that is you know less than 5% of what I do what constitutes the majority of what I do is to get them to understand that the tragedy that was not supposed to happen happened and how they gonna cope with it explain that that teenager perhaps will lose her hair lose a couple years of her school's her friends and get them to the position of healing together in a partnership and that is what the traditional science the traditional medicine is not very effective at teaching you arts music history and other humanities are much more powerful in that way I liked would narrow eloquent I'm C sad about Abraham Flexner I always reflect on the thing everybody knows the 1910 report and you know how highly we like to think you know he raided Minnesota at the time that we got it we got the the connection between practice at education what I'm thinking about is this is a guy who who was a boss of very smart people like Albert Einstein you know imagine that that Einstein reports to you you know this is not a normal job this guy knew what management and leadership about it what it meant and I like you know I mean you know Lena Rosenberg never tires of the Canadian link and Oslo was a Canadian he also was in John Hopkins and then in Oxford but nevertheless Canadian once Canadian always the important thing though is that I am the you know the most passionate about how well-being of your patients in yourself must be but do understand and do you know as we having this you know sort of a group hug at these times that compassion alone is not enough I can guarantee you that our predecessors 200 years ago two millennia ago they're very compassionate and their patients still died of things that we don't even have on the map and the Delta between the affective compassion and compassion is science so science is what made medicine medicine sign is why you are in this hall Sian is the reason why 300 million people died of smallpox just this last century and this century zero no 100 years ago surgery was nearly impossible its anesthesia antibiotics sort of every childbirth was a was their life threatening event and we have moved there and we have changed what this mankind should count as one of the highest achievements of this civilization which is modern medicine by virtue science the addition to that of course is as you pointed at the lunch hour when I was having the honor of greeting your parents and seeing in the I mean you are happy you know I get that you know you are in genetic but look at your parents you know they live in that reflected light of your energy and your current accomplishment that's beautiful and the same team the same connectivity that has served you so well getting here will transform and transmute in my opinion into the relationships you will have with your patients and you will learn how to live your life from your patients if you are listening enough if you are carefully not you will okay so it looks very good from here white coat bright smiles all good I have great hopes for you great dreams you know that we share I'm very proud of you very proud of this University and as you are being kind and pursuing excellence congratulations [Applause] okay Wow great day very exciting and before we end though a few more things because this day didn't just suddenly happen and by the way one little glitch we admit it during that coating ceremony but I think we just showed you all that when we say the faculty will give you the coats off their backs [Applause] so this was really predominantly put together today by a wonderful staff member who you all got to meet and love this week Rachel routine and I want to thank her she really was the mastermind behind most of our last night and also as is always so auspicious in this Great Hall I really want to thank the Health Sciences orchestra and maestro Steve Ramsey for their beautiful music we are about to close this ceremony so let me explain how things will go logistically in a moment the members on the stage will first process out followed by the students students you need to head outside to take a class photo on the south steps and as you walk out you'll be guided there to our guests in the audience we're while we're taking the photo what we'd like you to do after all the students have left is join us in the lobby where we'll have a little some light refreshments and we're gonna do our best to quickly take the photo and get them back in to be with you what we ask is that you leave them outside by themselves for a second just to get the photo so when they come back quickly they can be with you and you'll have an opportunity to purchase the class photo if you choose I want to thank you all for being here today for one of the really most beautiful ceremonies in our lives as physicians and most importantly welcome to all of the class of 2023 to this noble profession thank you have a great day [Music] [Music]

Channel: University of Minnesota Medical School

Views: 1,552

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Keywords: umnmedschool, medical school, university of minnesota, umn, u of m, WCC, white coat ceremony, white coat

Id: JWLSzOs1No8

Length: 117min 59sec (7079 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019