Class of 2029 reciting the Physician Assistant Professional Oath.

PA White Coat Ceremony

PA Program Welcomes Incoming Class

Students told, “You are all here because you deserve to be here. So, trust in yourselves, trust in your dedication to this path.”

The Physician Assistant (PA) White Coat Ceremony, held Aug. 7 in Hiebert Lounge, welcomed 26 incoming students into the study and professional practice of medicine. While other speakers remarked on the effort it took for these students to reach that point, keynote speaker Jessica Britnell, MS, PA-C, took a different tack.

“I would argue that the white coat is not really an achievement. It’s really about possibility,” said Britnell, president of the Massachusetts Association of Physician Assistants. “It’s a promise to serve and a promise to learn. It’s a promise to place the needs of others before your own,”

PA Program Director Aliza Stern, MMSc, PA-C, assistant professor of dermatology, talked about the students’ first few months absorbing immense amounts of medical knowledge. Even with all this newly acquired information, their first time with a real patient will be intimidating, she said.

“The most important clinical tool you will carry with you is not something you will keep in your coat pocket. It is your capacity to listen. Patients need someone who is willing to see them, hear them, and care for them.”

Aliza Stern, MMSc, PA-C

“But remember this; you don’t need to know everything to treat somebody with dignity and kindness,” said Stern. “The most important clinical tool you will carry with you is not something you will keep in your coat pocket. It is your capacity to listen. Patients need someone who is willing to see them, hear them, and care for them.”

PA students graduate with a Master of Science (MS) degree after 34 months of combined classroom and clinical studies. Created in the 1960s to address a chronic shortage of primary care doctors, physician assistants typically work under the supervision, or in collaboration with a physician in hospitals, private practices and other medical settings. They can diagnose illnesses, develop treatment plans, write prescriptions, perform physical exams and medical procedures, and participate in surgery.

Hee-Young Park, PhD, dean, ad interim, welcomed the students and more than 100 family members, friends and faculty in the audience. Park said she was a founder of BU’s physician assistant program when it began in 2014. “I was privileged to be a founding member,” said Park. “It is really special to me to be standing here today to welcome all of you to your professional journey.”

Central to the ceremony is faculty members helping students to put on the white coats they will wear when they enter clinical settings as a student and as a licensed PA.

“It’s a symbol of honor and trust,” said Park. “Each time you wear it, when you go to clinics, remember the (physician assistant professional) oath you take today – to bring knowledge, judgment, compassion and patient-centered care, and to practice with humility, integrity and see the human being before you.”

“You are all here because you deserve to be here. So, trust in yourselves, trust in your dedication to this path,” said Laney Diehl, president of the PA Class of 2027. Diehl shared that she’d just finished her fourth clinical rotation, and felt the program prepared her well. “Trust me when I say the hard work pays off.”

In her concluding remarks, Stern reminded students they were entering a noble profession built on service, adaptability and deep compassion.

“Wear this coat, with pride, hold on to the excitement you feel in this room today, and treat every patient experience as the privilege that it is,” she said. “We are thrilled to guide you, support you and watch you grow.”