West Palm Beach campus College of Chiropractic Medicine recently celebrated the progress of 15 new chiropractic medical students at its fourth White Coat Ceremony in which students officially received their clinic coats.
After being welcomed by West Palm Beach campus President Kimberly Lea and Chancellor Dr. Arthur Keiser, the students were presented personalized coats and recited the Oath of Professionalism.
Also in attendance at the ceremony were many local chiropractic physicians who play a unique and vital role in the success of the students from the very beginning of the program as they host them in their private practices for clinical observations.
Dr. Wiles, Dean of the College, spoke of the importance of balancing professionalism – needed to make tough decisions in the delivery of care; with humanism, or compassion, equally needed to really care for patients as fellow human beings. Wearing the white coat symbolically joins the students together, and to their faculty, and to all who wear the coat as an external symbol of the trust placed in them by their patients and society.
White coat ceremonies are held by about 95% of all professional healthcare programs, and the tradition was started in 1993, when Dr. Arnold Gold, a New York neurologist, founded the Gold Foundation for Humanism in Medicine to emphasize the dual responsibilities of professionalism and humanism in healthcare.
My instructors believed in me. They were more than instructors, they tried to get to know you as a person and tried to understand your goals so they could push you towards them. Student services helped me find a job before I even graduated. Everyone was dedicated to my overall success.
