Eastern Virginia Medical School held its annual White Coat Ceremony for the Class of 2014 Friday, Aug. 20, as part of a week-long orientation and welcome for new student-physicians.

The H. Lee Kanter lecture was given by Margaret E. Mohrmann, MD, PhD, professor of biomedical ethics, pediatrics, medical education, and religious studies and director for the biomedical ethics program at University of Virginia.

Margaret E. Mohrmann, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Virginia delivered the annual H. Lee Kanter lecture at the Class of 2014 White Coat Ceremony August 20, 2010.

The donning of the white coat, a universal symbol of medicine, marks the medical students’ entry as a junior colleague in the field. Dr. Mohrmann eloquently and movingly shared with EVMS’ newest class of MD students and their loved ones the significance of this very important declaration and how “professing medicine” will forever change their lives.

She encouraged the new students to wear their white coats proudly, thoughtfully and carefully. “Let it [the white coat] remind you, especially when the studying becomes too much, that you are committed to scientific learning and practice. Let it remind you, especially when the temptations come—as they will—that you are committed to embracing and holding sacred the privilege of being intimately engaged with other people’s bodies and lives. And, keep the coat unbuttoned, leave it open, expose your heart, the core of yourself, to remind you, especially when the suffering comes—as it will—that you are committed to letting yourself be changed by your patients into the doctor they need you to be.”

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At the white coat ceremony, EVMS department chairmen helped each new student into his or her white coat — symbolizing the student’s entry into the field of medicine. Medical students retain these short coats until they graduate and earn the right to wear the full-length physician coat.

“All around the world, no matter where you go, people of all nations recognize the white coat as a universal symbol of healing and help for the ill or the injured.
So the white coat is a badge you should wear with pride, “ said Gerald J. Pepe, PhD, dean and provost.