White Coat Ceremony - Franklin High School Class of 2021 Project Lead the Way Biomedical Program

Thursday, January 9, 2020, at 5:30 PM, the auditorium at Franklin High School, began to fill with the Juniors from the Project Lead the Way Biomedical Program for their White Coat Ceremony.

All things take hard work. Obstacles to overcome.

"The good physician knows his patient through and through, and his knowledge is bought dearly. Time, sympathy, and understanding must be lavishly dispensed, but the reward is to be found in that personal bond which forms the greatest satisfaction of the practice of medicine. One of the essential qualities of the clinician is his interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient."

You could see the excitement of the students and the teachers. The White Coat, they begin talking about it on the first day of Freshman year, when they start the program. It is a right of passage. They are 3/4 through the program. The night has finally come for them...the Franklin High School Project Lead the Way Biomedical Class of 2021 White Coat Ceremony.

Just what is the White Coat Ceremony all about? I came across "The Care of the Patient" by Francis Peabody.

For the medical student...".... For he only has time, to sit down by the bedside and learn all about the patient assigned to him, to get to know him as a human being, perhaps to learn that he is not someone who 'has nothing the matter with him' but whose symptoms, so-called functional, emanate from difficult circumstances occurring in this individual's life. ...He needs to know his patient through and through, for, as has been quoted so many times in what soon will be a century, 'the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.'"
This sounds like life. Regardless of the field. Regardless of the occupation. Regardless of the situation. Shouldn't every person take the time to get to know the other person as a human being? Don't we all deserve to be treated in the manor Francis Peabody describes in "The Care of the Patient"!

Francis Peabody also described medicine as an art, "The practice of medicine in its broadest sense includes the whole relationship of the physician with his patient." Stating that, "Good practice presupposes an understanding of the sciences which contribute to the structure of modern medicine, but it is obvious that sound professional training should include much broader equipment."
An art? Customer service? Much broader equipment...that sounds like life experience to me. It sounds like learning should not just happen in the classroom. Learning should happen from human to human from situation to situation.

Presenting "Dr." Becca Scher

Treatment of disease = impersonal
Care of a patient = personal
Relationship between physician and patient = strongly emphasized
Diagnosis and treatment = directly dependent on the relationship between physician and patient 
Failure of a young physician to establish relationship = ineffectiveness in the care of patients

All of this sounds like life...relationships...listening...understanding humans and the emotions that go along with them. Really listening to what they are saying, the underlying words and meaning.

Now, I am sure this is not what the kids took away from the ceremony, however, a physician was the honorary speaker and she did speak about hard work and working hard, compassion, listening to what others are saying...

...pretty much what was said in "The Care of the Patient" by Francis Peabody.