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By Meredith Amor Director of Communications, Barry University
October 12, 2020, Miami, Florida – Ahead of beginning rotations in hospital and clinical settings, 100 Barry University Physician Assistant students wore their white coats together for the first time and took the Hippocratic Oath during a virtual ceremony.
Medical Director Richard Fien led the next generation of health care heroes in the time-honored tradition, during which practitioners vow to uphold the standards of the profession. This important rite of passage for second-year students celebrates their entrance into clinical practice.
“Today’s ceremony marks a transition,” John McFadden, Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, told the students when discussing the significance of slipping on the white coat. “It says to others that you are actively adopting the identity of a health care professional in the way you reason and the way you act.”
In years past, the traditional white coats were bestowed during the formal ceremony, though this year plans were adjusted for the virtual program, with students receiving them in advance in order to mark the momentous occasion.
Ahead of reciting the Oath of Hippocrates, each student’s name was read aloud, and they were pictured on screen wearing their new white coat.
The Physician Assistant program is part of Barry’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences, which supports opportunities for developing skills in inter-professional collaboration. Physician Assistants are medical professionals who provide direct patient care, diagnose illness, manage treatment, and prescribe medications.
The students began their rotations the next week. Watch highlights of the ceremony.