65 First-year PharmDs Take Part in the College's First White Coat Ceremony

W

So began the College’s first-ever white coat ceremony, held in a sun-filled room in the Michigan League the afternoon of Oct. 7. The centerpiece of the one-hour event was the ceremonial donning of a new white pharmacist’s coat by every P-1 student. To symbolize the ties that bind one class of pharmacy students to the next, throughout history, each first-year student was led to center stage by a fourth-year student. At center stage — in front of College faculty, staff, P-2, P-3, and P-4 students, and family members — P-1 students were helped into a white coat by presiding officials Associate Deans Stevenson, Frank Ascione, BSPharm’69, PharmD’73, and Hank Mosberg, and Assistant Dean Valener Perry.

“The purpose of the white coat ceremony is to acknowledge the transition P-1 students are making into the profession of pharmacy,” explained Ascione. “We want to instill in our newest students the knowledge that there are core values and expectations implicit in the privilege of being a University of Michigan Pharmacy student, a pharmacist, and a future U-M Pharmacy alumnus or alumna. Honor, trust, and respect come with our profession, but so do responsibilities. It is essential that students embrace these expectations early in their professional development, since everything they learn from here on will be based on these concepts.”

To reinforce the significance of their commitment, students recited a pledge of professionalism, jointly developed by the American Pharmaceutical Association Academy of Students of Pharmacy (APhA-ASP ) and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Deans’ Task Force on Professionalism. P-1 students were led in the pledge by P-4 Kurt Hammond, president of the U-M chapter of the APhA-ASP.

Stevenson drew upon the APhA-ASP/AACP Task Force’s definitions of professionalism when he explained to P-1s that a fundamental principle of the professional pharmacist is the primacy of patient welfare.

“This principle demands placing the interest of patients above our own and includes a commitment to maintain the confidentiality of patient health information, and to promote fair and efficient use of finite health care resources,” Stevenson said. “It also means taking personal responsibility for helping to lead the practice of pharmacy to new levels as health care and society evolve. An expanded sense of professionalism and a commitment to life-long learning is critical if we are to succeed in this changing environment.”.