Education

Education

Ceremony Marks Transition to Clerkship Years

On a stage in the UW’s Meany Hall, a medical student about to enter her third year of medical school hears her name being called. She, like her classmates ahead and behind her, walks up to accept a white coat from one of her professors. The symbolic gesture marks her entry into her clerkship years of medical school, when she will be spending most of her time in clinics and hospitals learning how to care for patients.



	Dr. Terry Mengert, an emergency room physician, addresses the medical students.

	Students hold their white coats on their laps before putting them on together.

More than 180 medical students participated in the School of Medicine’s third annual event commemorating that transition in April 2003. The Clinical Transition Ceremony, sponsored by the School of Medicine and the Medical Alumni Affairs office, recognizes the students' successful completion of two-years of extensive coursework.

"Some of the students participating in the creation of the new School of Medicine curriculum had indicated that they wanted a ceremony that would mark the beginning of clerkships," said Dr. Daniel Hunt, associate dean for academic affairs. "This ceremony celebrates the students' readiness to take their basic science and clinical science skills to the clerkships."

Some of the clerkships all students take are: internal medicine, psychiatry, family medicine, surgery, obstetrics/gynecology, and pediatrics. The students train at clinical sites in towns and cities across Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.

At the event, students shook hands with Dr. Erika Goldstein, associate professor of medicine in the Division of General
Internal Medicine and director of the School of Medicine Colleges, and Dr. Kaj Johansen, clinical professor of surgery. After everyone received their white coats, they donned them together. Goldstein read the "Physician's Oath," a modification of the Hippocratic Oath. In two years, these medical students will recite the Hippocratic Oath as part of the awarding of their M.D. degrees.

"Hippocrates read the oath to students before they began studying medicine," said Hunt. "We continue to honor this tradition to inform students of the expectations and responsibilities inherent in hands-on patient care and research."

Johansen and Goldstein were selected by the 2002 graduating medical students as Distinguished Teachers in Clinical Science. Faculty representing the School of Medicine colleges at the ceremony included Dr. Hugh Foy, associate professor of surgery; Dr. Raye Maestas, associate professor of family medicine; Dr. Terry J. Mengert, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Emergency Medicine; and Dr. Sherilyn Smith, assistant professor of pediatrics. Mengert gave the keynote address.