New York Medical College White Coat Ceremony

Dear Future Physicians,

I write to you today about what it is to have more than just a voice.I write to you about having something to say that you communicate with the whole and essence of your being. Yet, in truth, to have a voice, one must bring ones whole being along with it.

There will be times when that voice will be soft, still, barely heard over the confusion and distractions that seem to surround us.Other times that voice will be a clarion call, so loud that everyone around you will hear your message. But in both cases, the message will be the same.It will tell you and those for whom you care that you are present, that you are able, and that you are willing to bring yourselfyour whole selfto the task at hand, to the people for whom you are responsible.

A profession is so much more than an occupation.You do not simply take up space or occupy your time during the day.You certainly do not just submit to the whims and directions of your employers.A professional is fiercely independent when it comes to making himself or herself accountable for what is required, yet, at the same time, a professional is part of a larger community of like-minded individuals who, together, uphold values and goals that they share.

As you embark on your journey to becoming a professional, you must first take note that you are not already there.Wanting to be a physician is not the same as being one.There is much to learnand not only the medical knowledge and clinical skills that you will utilize in your care of patients.Like any other transformation, you must undergo a process of self-reflection.You must continually ask yourselves whether the expectations of the profession will give you a sense of purpose or will it become a burden, whether the demands of being a doctor will weigh on you or build you up.You must think deeply whether the generations-old tradition can be made yours, how you can accept its ethos for the good that it engenders and commit to improving those faults where the tradition is still found lacking.These questions will never be answered in full, but as you develop your own sense of what it means to be a professional physician, the questions become easier.The divergence between what you want and what the profession wants from you become smaller.

Let me give you a roadmap for your journey. A professional has specialized knowledge, is prepared to utilize that knowledge for the sake of its purpose, and has an internal motivation to use that knowledge through a mandate of service.This latter component differentiates the professional from the professionally qualified.

In your years in medical school, the first two components come through instructionyour professors can teach you what you need to know and how to perform clinical activities.Of course, a more apt description would be that they can inform you of what you need to know and do, but you must learn them on your own.You are not buckets to be filled but rather individuals who must absorb the information and familiarize yourselves with the choreography of clinical practice.

Internal motivation, however, is different.One person cannot give another internal motivationprofessors can give incentives and rewards, like grades and recommendations, but they cannot instill in you the fire or the drive to want to be the best you can be for the simple reason that you expect it of yourselves.That part of your education must, by definition, be self-directed.That part of the journey cannot be paved or even treaded upon by anyone but yourselves.

You should know, however, that you are not alone.You do not have to figure this all out by yourselves.Because the medical profession has a rich history and strong community, you can look to othersboth from the past and in the presentas guides and mentors.Find doctors for whom being a doctor seems natural.Ask them to tell you how they struggled and how they overcame the overwhelm that becoming a doctor entails.Have them relay to you how they negotiate between conflicting priorities, such as when the demands of their personal lives butt up against those of their fiduciary responsibilities.

Dont only listen to their words, watch them, see them as the tell you with pride and satisfaction how becoming a doctor has made them the person that they are.Become envious of the passion that they have, the crows feet that reveal the deep happiness they have when they tell you of the time when they cared for a stranger.When they tell you about their failures, see how they try, but are unable to hide, not the embarrassment of disappointing colleagues but their shame of not living up to their own standards.If being a doctor were only an occupation, the entire being of these mentors would not speak to you.Their words will tell you different stories than the language of their bodies.Only in a professional does ones voice sing in harmony with ones being.Want that for yourselves, for only a life undivided is a life of full integrity.

When you read about the medical profession, inquire not only of the challenges and complexities of current health system or the opportunities that future biotechnology and medical advances will bring.Learn about the history of medicine and of its relationship with society, religion, and philosophy through time.Let the lessons of history speak to you as an insider, as one who intends to carry that history forward into the future.See physicians of old as spiritual family members with whom you share a common bond.Appreciate how they have given you their inheritance of knowledge and professional purpose for you to pass down to others.Do not ignore even those family members who make you shudderwhose cruelty to others in the name of medicine have tarnished the family name for generations.Remember them to rectify the professions reputation.While you may be able to disavow them, you will not be able to disown them, since the world will remind you how you share their name.

Only at the end of your medical school training will you actually enter the medical profession.For the four years of your training, you will be somewhere in betweennot simply a student, not quite a doctor.When you wear your white coat, people will treat you according to what your coat signifies to them.They will most likely not know that its true significance falls somewhat short of what it projects.Do not be fooled by their misconceptions.It is easy to think that the coat makes the professional.The most valuable lesson to learn from your white coat is humility.While many define this virtue as a vice, it is one of the most valuable tools in your metaphorical black bag.Humility is not a low view of ones own importance; it is a recognition both that you can be better than you currently are and that you cannot succeed alone.Wear your white coat with pride in the goals that you have set for yourself and not in what you have not yet achieved.Let this sense of pride in who you will become join with the humility of knowing who you currently are so that together they push you forward, give you reason to learn more and try harder.The apprentice only becomes a master when he or she can be trusted with the craft.

When you do finish medical school, you will take an oath of initiation.At this point, your voice proclaims the message of your profession.An oath is much more than a personal promise or an employment contract, just as a professional is different from a neighbor or employee.Oaths, like the professionals who proclaim them, have moral weight that transcends the agreement that the relevant parties make.An oath binds its maker through a public declaration and in the name of something greater.While a broken promise hurts the intended benefactor, a forsaken oath hurts both the intended benefactor and the one who foreswears it.Most importantly, unlike promises or contracts, which are declarations of intention, an oath is a performative utterance.It is the first act that you will carry out as a physician.It is the act of declaring who one is, not simply what one intends to do.As such, an oath, just like becoming a professional, does not so much change the future as it changes the meaning of the future for the one who declares it.

As you go through your next years in medical school and you begin to recognize that your personal goals and values align with your professional ones, you will realize that your profession is your platform and your purpose.A platform because it is the raised structure that holds you and your message above the fray so that you can lead others with a clear and understood standing of authority.A purpose because it will help you determine how far you may go, for whom you undertake responsibility, and how meaningful the effort is to you.

Take these years to develop your voiceto give it something worth saying.Learn the knowledge and develop the skills that that you will need to become the authority that the profession and your future patients will demand that you become.Most importantly, take time to reflect.Make the profession your own and at the same time give your whole selves to it.Learn how to merge your voice with those that came before so that you can be heard individually yet in harmony.Learn to speak not from a script but from your heart, with all the strength that you can muster.Only then will your message speak to everyone around you.

I wish you the very best on your journey.

Sincerely,

Ira Bedzow

See the article here:

Open Letter To Medical Students On The Road Ahead To Becoming Professional Physicians - Forbes