Students, Family and Mentors Celebrate Cornell's 2011 White Coat Ceremony

Posted by Donald Smith, Cornell University
December 3, 2011

When I asked Danielle Hein why so many members of her family had come to Ithaca this weekend to celebrate Cornell's White Coat Ceremony for third-year veterinary students, she said, "I think my family is just really proud and they are good at supporting and celebrating each other's accomplishments. I am certain that they deserve some of the credit for helping me get this far so the "white coat" is essentially for them."



Danielle Hein (center) and family at the 2011 White Coat Ceremony
Danielle's mentor, Dr. John Andresen (Cornell 1966)
and Mrs. Maribeth Andresen are to the right of Danielle.

The White Coat tradition that started eight years ago at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine marks the beginning of the clinical portion of the veterinary curriculum. During the last one and one-half years of education, the students will be caring for clinical cases in the hospital wards and on farms and other ambulatory settings.

"I'm sure that my classmates would agree that we are extremely excited to finally be entering the clinical portion of our education", Danielle said. "I feel so enthusiastic about it, to finally see patients, to feel like I'm really helping animals and their owners, and applying the things I've spent years learning. It's the culmination of so much hard work. I just can't imagine anything more satisfying."

During the event, hosted by Dean Michael Kotlikoff, each of the students had a mentor officially coat them. Danielle chose Cornell alumnus, Dr. John Andresen, the veterinarian who piqued her interest many years ago and who has remained a mentor throughout her time at Cornell.



Kevin Render and his mother, Sheila Perry,
at Cornell's White Coat Ceremony

Kevin Render had eight family members drive from Buffalo to celebrate with him. He was especially grateful to his mother for her direction early in life. "My mother was a teacher even though she doesn't have a teaching degree. She taught me invaluable lessons even when she wasn't trying. Without a doubt, those lessons are why I have made it this far when so many in my neighborhood did not. Through her struggles, I learned willpower. Through her character, I learned individuality."

According to Kevin, "The start of clinics will be bittersweet. Sweet, because I'll have patients and put into practice all the learning I've had the past two years. Bitter, because clinics are a reminder that vet school is more than half over. Furthermore, because we are dispersed in the hospital during clinical rotations, I'll never be around all of my classmates in one place ever again."

Michael Robinson's father, David
flew from London, England to attend the ceremony.

Parents and family members came from all over the United States, and even from Europe. David Robinson, father of Michael, flew from London to join his son. The parents of Nate LaHue, both veterinarians, came from California.
Kathleen Molero's parents and also her mentor, Dr. Carlos Machado, arrived from south Florida. Kate Allen's parents flew in from Chicago. In some cases, parents or other family members who are also veterinarians, coated their children or siblings.

The capstone of the afternoon was the address delivered by Dr. Robert R. Marshak, dean emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania. A Cornell graduate (1945) and perhaps the most influential dean of the second half of the 20th century, Dr. Marshak portrayed the veterinary profession using a brilliant tapestry that evoked the rigors of science and the art of medicine and communication.






Dr. Robert R. Marshak, (Cornell 1945) 
professor and dean emeritus,
University of Pennsylvania

 

Dr. Marshak spoke glowingly of Cornell's rich tradition in excellence from our founding in 1868 by the Scottish veterinarian, James Law, to the present world-class faculty and student body. "You are a special group", he urged the students to remember.

  

And so they are and so they shall be, as they stood with other veterinarians in the great hall to recite the veterinarian's oath led by Dr. Jonathan May, president of the college's Alumni Association, which co-sponsored the afternoon's celebration.

Photos by the author.
Dr. Smith welcomes comments at dfs6@cornell.edu.

White Coat Ceremony at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine

Posted November 29, 2011

by Donald F. Smith, DVM, Cornell University

Cornell’s 8th annual White Coat Ceremony for third-year veterinary medical students is Saturday, December 3. The concept of the “white coat” donning for medical students was inaugurated at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and shortly thereafter adapted for veterinary students at Washington State University.

Cornell adapted the practice in 2004, but with a twist. Instead of holding the ceremony at the beginning of the four-year curriculum, we decided to mark students’ transition from the preclinical to their clinical education as they began their hospital rotations.

Canada honored Sir William Osler in 1969
on the 50th anniversary of his death with this
commemorative postage stamp.
Photo by author.

Historically, both medical and veterinary students were largely “book taught” until about 100 years ago when the curriculum was expanded to include one or two years of clinical education in the hospital ward (or at the farm or stable). Dr. William Osler, a physician at Johns Hopkins Medical School but who had previously worked at McGill University’s veterinary college, is credited with being the first medical school professor to bring students out of the lecture hall into the wards.

Osler observed, “He [or she] who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all”. “Listen to your patients”, he would tell his medical students, “he [or she] is telling you the diagnosis.”

Cornell professor Dr. William Hornbuckle is the quintessential small animal diagnostician. Like Osler, the respect he has from over four decades of students is legendary. Dr. Hornbuckle is a stickler for getting an exhaustive history from the client. But once that information is gathered, he is adamant that the student "concentrate on the physical examination. Don't get distracted by talking to the client or your colleague for this is your chance to listen to the animal and what it is telling you."

Because the white coat symbolizes the generic and traditional professional attire of the health sciences, we at Cornell decided in conjunction with our alumni executive board (the co-sponsors of the white coat ceremony) to follow the lead of our medical school colleagues. We did this while also recognizing that many veterinarians—large animal and wildlife practitioners, for example—do not typically wear white coats in their practices.

As the veterinarian mentors of the Class of 2013 formally robe or “coat” each student this Saturday, they are following the deep-rooted tradition of veterinary education at Cornell where faculty promote the essential role of patient-oriented learning. It is in the clinical environment—whether the hospital ward, the farm or stable, or the wildlife sanctuary—that observations of both illness and health are embedded in the new veterinarian’s memory, and that textbook knowledge is applied with relevance to the patient.

White Coat Ceremony for Cornell's Veterinary Class of 2012

How and when did Cornell’s White Coat tradition begin?

When I became dean in 1997, I had never heard about this symbolic coating of medical students at the beginning of their professional education, though it had been inaugurated by Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons four years earlier. 



Members of Class of 2012 celebrate their new white coats
December 4, 2010.

 Washington State University’s veterinary college had also adopted the practice and, in 2002, Dr. Richard Grambow, Chair of our College Advisory Council, became aware of it while visiting WSU where his daughter was on the faculty. He was so impressed that he promoted the idea with the alumni association and our executive staff, and we all thought it was a great idea. From the beginning, it was embraced as a joint alumni-college event with the alumni association providing the white coats and the college sponsoring the venue and reception.

We had our first ceremony seven years ago, in 2004. Rather than have the event during first-year orientation as happens at other medical schools and at WSU’s veterinary college, we decided the ceremony should mark the successful completion of the first two and one-half years of study, when the third-year students embark on clinical rotations. The first Saturday in December was selected.