WHO: Fifty-six first-year students entering Mercer University School of Medicine.
WHAT: Will participate in the School of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony, where they will be “cloaked” in their first white coats and get their first lesson in compassion. Dr. Jean Rawlings Sumner, who was a member of the School’s charter class in 1982, will deliver the keynote address to the students, their family members and friends.
WHEN: Aug. 18, 2002, at 3 p.m.
WHERE: The Grand Opera House, 651 Mulberry Street, Macon, Georgia
WHY: Although compassion has always played a significant role in patient care, it has traditionally not been a formal part of medical school curriculum. Through the White Coat Ceremony, Mercer School of Medicine helps to clarify for the incoming students the true meaning of humanism in medicine — that as physicians they should strive not only to cure their patients but also to care for them. In addition to receiving a white coat, each student will be given during the ceremony a pin inscribed with the words “humanism in medicine” from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and a copy of the book On Doctoring provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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