white coat ceremony question

[epsilonprodigy]

Can you have a physician who has been an important mentor for you be the one to "coat" you at most schools?

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[JackShephard MD]

Can you have a physician who has been an important mentor for you be the one to "coat" you at most schools?

No.

 

[Isoprop]

This depends on the school. I think some schools will let someone (like a family member who is a physician) cloak you. At my school, it was just some random faculty member.

 

[235009]

Can you have a physician who has been an important mentor for you be the one to "coat" you at most schools?

i've never heard of this being done anywhere.

also i wouldn't be surprised if you get significantly ridiculed if you do this (assuming your school will allow it)

 

[ImNotBritish]

It wasn't even presented to us as an option to have anyone other than the faculty member do it. However, one person in our class had his mom coat him. She is a graduate of our school, and still very involved in it (she gave a speech at the ceremony too). I think it would have been kind of weird if it had been anyone else that was brought up there specially to coat one person.

 

[Barcu]

At my school, any physician could coat you so many of us had family members do it, and the rest just had faculty from the school. I don't know if anyone had someone who was a mentor, but no one really would have noticed or cared.

 

[Stuart Smalley]

Definitely depends on the school. At my school, physicians and non-physicians alike were coating students. Students were being coated by their favorite uncles who work in finance. No one knew or cared. Pretty much the only ones NOT coated by family members/friends were those who either didn't have anyone present, or who didn't understand what a white coat ceremony was coming into it (so they didn't think to ask their parents to coat them).

You should ask students at your school to see what their class did.

Really awkward aside: one person's parent, who was an alum, took over the microphone during coating to give the class a long introduction about themselves (when they graduated, where they did their residency, etc.). Just as long as your mentor doesn't do that, you'll be fine

 

[Acoustic]

That happened several times at our ceremony. Several students have family members on the faculty here. The ceremony itself went through several physicians as the coater, switching systematically. The switch just incorporated a family member who was a physician whenever that'd match student and family. The coater was always a physician though. I think it'd be weird to be coated by someone who wasn't a physician, I mean, it's a welcome to the career ceremony

 

[Stuart Smalley]

I think it'd be weird to be coated by someone who wasn't a physician, I mean, it's a welcome to the career ceremony

Yes, I can definitely see your point. My school made it more into a "congrats on making this far, let's thank your family for supporting you" moment. It was geared toward the families as much as the students, so in the context of the whole ceremony, having family members involved made more sense... though it makes a lot less sense when you think about what the white coat ceremony traditionally means.

A speaker even gave directions to the family members where to stand, etc. before the ceremony started in order to "coat" someone, and there was an usher specifically to get them onstage in an orderly manner. They were clearly supposed to be included.

 

[epsilonprodigy]

Cool, I will have to find out more about my particular school (whichever one I actually land at, lol.) I agree that it would be weird if you were the only one who had a non-faculty member do it, but I also think the symbolism gets a little lost if a non-physician does it. Was just curious- there is one physician who has done so much for me and been such an important mentor for me, I thought this would be a cool way to thank him, that is if the school is open to it and it's a common thing for students to do.

Awwwwkkwaaard about the show-stealing alum LOL. Bet that person wanted to crawl under the nearest table.

 

[SMCmedicine]

I really can't imagine any school allowing it. Your idea is great and I'm glad to hear you have such a mentor in your life. But the white coat ceremony is sort of like graduation, you walk across the stage, they say your name, the dean puts on your white coat, the associate dean for admissions puts a pin on your coat, you shake hands with the chancellor of the school, and you walk off stage.

This is how it was done at my school. No time to have specific people come on stage to place a white coat on you.

 

[mvenus929]

At my school, the Deans of Student Affairs are the ones to coat you, unless your family member is either a graduate of the school or a faculty member of the school. We only had 2-3 people in our class coated by a non-Dean, but there were several in the class below us.