University of New England

For a slideshow of pictures from the White Coat Ceremony, click here.

White Coat Ceremony Held On October 4th
UNECOM’s eleventh annual White Coat Ceremony was held at 7pm on Thursday, October 4, at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland. A reception followed in the Casco Bay Exhibition Hall. Over 1,000 friends, family members, and dignitaries attended the event, making it one of the largest UNECOM White Coat Ceremonies ever.

Event highlights included presentation of the white coats by members of the second-year class; remarks by John Peterson, D.O., UNECOM '82; a speech by second-year medical student Mike Dominello, president of the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA); and a reading of the Osteopathic Oath by Charlotte Paolini, D.O. (UNECOM ‘89), president of the UNECOM Alumni Board.

In his remarks, Dr. Peterson reflected on coming to the new medical school in 1978 as one of the members of the first entering class. "There was no one to look up to," he said, "no one to tell us, 'You'll get through it; it's not so bad.'" When he entered his residency, Dr. Peterson didn't know how he measured up against students from other, more established schools. After a time, that anxiety wore off. "I remember one of my peers telling me, 'John, when you're on call, we know that everyone here is in good hands,' " he said, "And I realized, 'Hey, we really were well-trained at NECOM.' " He encouraged current students to continue the tradition of excellence and to get involved in the AOA in order to help steer the future of the profession.

Student doctor Dominello reminded the first-year class that they are among the "best of the best," and elicited a flurry of head-turning and quiet gasps in the audience when he remarked that the 124 MSI students had been selected from an applicant pool of 3200. He asked the audience to think about what "excellence" means. "So what is excellence, really?" he queried. "Long, caffeinated nights in the anatomy lab? A smile and a compliment? Persistence? Integrity? Dr. Reuben Bell's Wednesday morning EOM lectures?"  

He went on to share a story a friend had told him about a restaurant manager in New York who seemed to be a perpetual optimist. "Jerry [the manager] was always in a great mood and always had something positive to say," Dominello said. He was so beloved for his great attitude that several waiters followed him around from restaurant to restaurant, just so they could continue to work with him. One morning, Jerry was accosted by robbers in his restaurant and was shot when his hand slipped from the lock on the safe. Rushed to the trauma center, Jerry realized by the looks on the doctors' faces that they had given him up for dead. He realized that he could decide to live or die, and he made the choice to live. He also made the choice to influence those around him positively, even as he lay on the gurney in his own blood. Shouting questions, a big, burly nurse asked Jerry if he had any allergies. "Yes," Jerry replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for his reply. He took a deep breath and shouted as loudly as he could, "Bullets!"

The audience chuckled and Dominello continued Jerry's story. "Over the doctors' laughter I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'" After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was back at his job in the restaurant.  Dominello reminded the audience that excellence is a choice - a conscious cultivation of high standards, a positive attitude, and enthusiasm - which will impact our own lives and those around us. "Dream big," he concluded, "start small, because after all - a goal is just a dream with a deadline."     

The White Coat Ceremony was an idea conceived by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to create a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in medicine. The first White Coat Ceremony took place in 1993 at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since then, more than 100 other medical schools in the U.S. and abroad have initiated a similar ceremony.

- Steve Smith, RSAS

L-R MSIIs Ryan Boutin, Azra Idrizovic, Emily Parent, Drew Saluti, and Jess Murphy.