BIDDEFORD — Erik W. O’Connell, son of William and Barbara O’Connell of Houlton, a first-year student at the University of New England of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), participated recently in the College’s annual White Coat Ceremony to formally recognize the transition students make from lay persons to those assuming the responsibility of physicians.
The evening ceremony was held at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland on Thursday, Oct. 4. Event highlights include presentation of the white coats by members of the second-year class. A reception to honor the Class of 2011 followed.
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 in Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since then, more than 100 other medical schools in the U.S. and abroad have initiated a similar ceremony.
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