Yale PA Online Welcomes First Class at White Coat Ceremony

On March 12, 2018, the inaugural Yale PA Online class held their White Coat Ceremony on the Yale Campus, the first of many traditions to be established by the pioneering class.

On this special occasion, 42 students gathered before their families, friends, and professors inside Yale’s Battell Chapel to receive the white coats that symbolize the beginning of their journey as future physician assistants.

“It is through ritual and ceremony, that we acknowledge the importance of certain transitions and recognize values to be passed on to others,” said keynote speaker Diane Bruessow, PA-C, MPAS, DFAAPA, who currently serves as the Secretary Treasurer of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. “The white coat ceremony is one such ritual in modern medicine.”

Bruessow armed students with advice to carry with them throughout their careers.

 “The moments where you can make a difference will always have terrible timing,” she said. “Pay that no mind. Engage anyway. Help anyway, and do it every time.”

By tradition, white coats have been worn by medical professionals for over a century, and represent the responsibility of practicing medicine and caring for others.

Students also received a pin of the Yale School of Medicine crest to wear on their coats, which serves as a reminder of their connection to the school, no matter how far they live from campus.  Arizona, Texas, and California comprise a few home states of students who found an immediate sense of belonging and camaraderie upon meeting each other at the start of their weeklong immersion, after nine weeks of engaging with each other during online classes.

“We’re all very supportive of each other,” said Danae Davis, a student from Loma Linda, California. “Coming here together, working with each other in a lab and receiving our coats makes this feel all the more real.”

Students and faculty alike said they looked forward to getting to know each other better throughout the five-day immersion, where they also had hands-on learning opportunities, including cadaver dissections in the medical school’s anatomy lab.  Students will attend their second on-campus experience in December 2018, just prior to clinical rotations.  The third immersion begins the week prior to graduation in May 2020.

“No other program has this level of exclusive access to these kinds of resources,” said Melissa Smith, a student from Elk Grove, California.

PA Online Program Director and Associate Professor James Van Rhee, MS, PA-C, closed the White Coat Ceremony by reminding students to keep their humanity at the forefront of their mission as medical providers. “It’s not the white coat that provides the care and the comfort, it’s the person inside the white coat,” he said.

“As physician assistants, you’re going to have the responsibility of caring for others to the best of your ability, and this responsibility doesn’t end after an office visit,” Van Rhee said. “Take this responsibility and trust very seriously, and I can promise you, you’ll have the most enjoyable and fulfilling career.”

Citation for this content: Yale School of Medicine Physician Assistant Online Program