White Coat/Coating Ceremony

[alonepear]

For someone who has been living and researching vet school for the past 3 years, I feel silly asking as though I should know, but:

What is the importance of the White Coat/Coating Ceremony before starting vet school?

I didn't even know it existed until a former co-worker went to St.Georges last year and had one of our vets fly in for her White Coat Ceremony, and Mississippi State just let us know what the date is for our upcoming one. Is this where we swear the oath? Do friends and family usually attend? Do all the schools have them? It seems so overconfident to throw a party for us before we even attempt to tackle vet school!

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[runnerDC]

For someone who has been living and researching vet school for the past 3 years, I feel silly asking as though I should know, but:

What is the importance of the White Coat/Coating Ceremony before starting vet school?

I didn't even know it existed until a former co-worker went to St.Georges last year and had one of our vets fly in for her White Coat Ceremony, and Mississippi State just let us know what the date is for our upcoming one. Is this where we swear the oath? Do friends and family usually attend? Do all the schools have them? It seems so overconfident to throw a party for us before we even attempt to tackle vet school!

I always thought "white coat" ceremonies were for third year students just before they headed into clinical rotations for their final year of vet school...

 

[Tsuki]

For someone who has been living and researching vet school for the past 3 years, I feel silly asking as though I should know, but:

What is the importance of the White Coat/Coating Ceremony before starting vet school?

I didn't even know it existed until a former co-worker went to St.Georges last year and had one of our vets fly in for her White Coat Ceremony, and Mississippi State just let us know what the date is for our upcoming one. Is this where we swear the oath? Do friends and family usually attend? Do all the schools have them? It seems so overconfident to throw a party for us before we even attempt to tackle vet school!

Supposedly the tradition started in Columbia med school and its spread to most of all the med schools. I attended my boyfriend's med school WCC last August. It was pretty nice actually. Friends and family are invited and the oath is recited. It's supposed to signify your entry into the profession.

I suppose it is a little pretentious..but I think it's nice.

I know some vet schools have two ceremonies..one for incoming students and another for those starting clinics.

 

[Bill59]

White coat ceremonies are pretty new, but I think most schools have some version nowadays. Sometimes it's for new students and sometimes it's for students entering clinics (usually sometime in 3rd year). It's just a ceremony welcoming students into veterinary school or the hospital. There's usually some speechifying by deans and deanlets and sometimes there's food. How big a deal it is varies with the school.

You usually do the oath at graduation.

 

[Spartanvet4cows]

Michigan State University has a white coat ceremony for incoming students and before entering clinics. I really enjoyed ours. I think it was sort of a "congrats for getting in" thing (which is still a big deal!). My father and husband came (my mom was in Colorado visiting her sister and so she couldn't make it). It was rolled into our orientation and so it wasn't overly formal but we all dressed nice, and said the oath. I think it's important to take the oath before starting vet school because we will be working with animals during our schooling and may encounter ethically challenging situations. I don't know how other schools work it, but I think it really helped me feel welcomed into the veterinary community.

 

[twosoakers]

western's wcs is at the end of orientation week in august (hint to self not to have chocolate on fingers that day).

 

[wildfocus]

just wear gloves, or find a way to drink your chocolate! there is ALWAYS a way to get the cocoa fix!

 

[twosoakers]

woohoo!!

 

[anc84]

are you sure you don't mean blue coat ceremony? i can't find the page anymore to quote it, but the blue coat symbolizes a vet in training and then you have a white coat ceremony when you are entering the profession.

 

[Spartanvet4cows]

Well, since the coat they gave me is white, and they called it a white coat ceremony, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a blue coat ceremony.

 

[TurboVet]

some schools have a blue coat ceremony to welcome you into the anatomy lab, heh heh, or the start of vet school. and then some may also have the white coat ceremony either at the start of clinics or at graduation. i've heard of them both.

 

[twosoakers]

each of the colleges at western u conduct a white coat ceremony prior to beginning classes:

http://www.westernu.edu/xp/edu/veterinary/news.xml

 

[conservationgal]

I have heard that schools do it in order to get the students to 'start thinking like a doctor.' WSU says that they hold the white coat ceremony so that we consider ourselves doctors of vetmed early on and that we realize how important our training is.

 

[ReinaDeLuz]

UF has a "coating ceremony" just after you finish your sophomore year (and just before you start clinics! eee!)

it's pretty special/exciting

 

[StealthDog]

The U of MN's white coat ceremony is before you start rotations. All we got for getting into vet school was a barbeque

 

[birdvet2006]

Glasgow doesn't have a white coat ceremony, or a blue one either. I think the whole idea is silly. We weren't even allowed to set foot into the clinical areas until our clinical year... except for the occasional practical or tutorial session.

 

[Boxsterluv]

At Western, it is kind of a combination of some of the above-mentioned things.. It is kind of a "congratulations on getting in" thing, they tell you how hard you've worked to get here and it's a real accomplishment just to get to this point; it is also kind of a thing to get you to start thinking like a doctor and be aware of how important it is to take this seriously...

It is kind of like the opposite of graduation, instead of saying yay, you're done, they say yay, you got here, but be prepared because it's going to be really hard.

It was really nice this past year, it was at a really nice place with a cool speaker (Temple Grandin), then we took pictures of the class, then we went back and had a barbeque/show-your-parents-around-the-school type thing. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Spartanvet4cows]

Glasgow doesn't let you near the clinical areas during your pre-clinical phase? That sucks. At Michigan State we're encouraged to spend as much time down there as possible. We've even got clubs like "foal team" where you get to take 5 hour shifts monitoring foals brought in to the clinic (as long as they're not in isolation). I guess they figure they want us as experienced as possible before we enter clinics.

Boxter, that's awesome that you had Temple Grandin speak at your ceremony. I've heard she's an amazing presenter. We had a clinician from MSU do most of our speaking, but he was also awesome.

 

[JumptheMoon]

I'm so jealous that you got to hear Temple Grandin speak, Boxter!! I want to re-read Animals in Translation, but I liked it so much the first time that I lent it to my mom, who lent it to someone at work, who lent it to someone else, etc. and now I have no clue where it is. (i.e. the same thing that happens to all of my good books! )

 

[PdxYOSHI]

I do think the white coat ceremony may be jumping the gun so to speak since we haven't even started classes. But nonetheless, I'm really glad that Oregon has one for its students. It kind of gets you into the mood and makes the whole thing seem real. Its not as if people really use these coats in the labs since they're nice and new with your names on them but still kind of cool in my opinion. Plus the new students at OSU are getting stethoscopes from the Oregon VMA. Makes me excited just thinking about it.

 

[birdvet2006]

Glasgow doesn't let you near the clinical areas during your pre-clinical phase? That sucks. At Michigan State we're encouraged to spend as much time down there as possible. I guess they figure they want us as experienced as possible before we enter clinics.

Yes, well - we got experience outside the classroom doing our pre-clinical EMS. It's not vet experience, but animal experience. Working on the farms for free etc. 12 weeks required over 2 years. During your breaks.

When you have a small caseload like Glasgow - I can almost see why it's important to reserve it for the final year class.

 

[nastrainor]

This is unrelated to the white coat ceremony, but I had to gush for a minute about Temple Grandin. Her book is awesome, so are her classes, and if you want to check out her website it's www.grandin.com...I think.