 photo: Columbia's Valegos College of Physicians and Surgeons The White Coat Ceremony Models Excellent Leadership
How business leaders can benefit from medicine’s celebratory ritual. Healthcare education’s unique White Coat Ceremony models how celebrating teams can promote growth and talent retention in your organization. Once a year, healthcare programs worldwide hold White Coat Ceremonies for students graduating or launching from classroom to clinical learning. The ceremony provides students personalized white coats and incorporates three key elements of celebrating teams:
The ritual of celebrating this transition improves student and even faculty success. Business leaders will benefit from adopting these three elements to develop teams that value learning, value each other, and enjoy improved productivity. WHAT IS A WHITE COAT CEREMONY? Arnold P. Gold, M.D. created the first White Coat Ceremony at Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeons in 1993 to emphasize “compassionate, collaborative, scientifically excellent care from the very first day of training in the healthcare professions.” These ceremonies shift the tradition of physicians taking the Hippocratic oath upon graduation to taking it before seeing their first patient, and taking the oath among peers and family. These ceremonies are now used in healthcare education programs globally. While Harvard’s medical and dental schools use these ceremonies to welcome new students, some place the ceremony at the close of classroom learning, where the students enjoy group learning, and before the start of clinical learning, where the students separate to work in clinical settings. This targeted timing maximizes the ceremony’s benefits. At one Masters of Science, Physicians Assistant ceremony in December 2022, 250 students, faculty, and families gathered in a large auditorium to celebrate their year of classroom learning. Alfred Sadler, M.D., the 2022 Keynote Speaker at California State University Monterey Bay Masters of Science Physicians Assistant ceremony, is founder of the Physician Assistant Program at Yale University School of Medicine in 1970 and co-author of (P)LUCK: Lessons We Learned For Improving Healthcare And The World. He spoke to a room of 250 students, faculty, and families. Dr. Sadler promoted the three key elements of celebrating teams:
All of these elements increase success and talent-retention. CELEBRATIONS REFLECT ON ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND LEARNING “The students were recognized for the effort that they had put in to prepare themselves for PA school in the first place and the work that they had done the past 12 months.” -Alfred Sadler, M.D. Keynote Speaker Sadler and other leaders recognized the difficulties the students faced, the accomplishments they made, and reflected upon the life lessons they learned along the way. Two students also spoke, touching on the special memories the students uniquely shared from having studied, recreated, and learned special medical skills. Speakers recalled late night study groups and unique obstacles, such as broad power outages, along with amusing moments and the gentle ribbing of a faculty member or classmate. They reminded the audience of uplifting moments, such as mastering surgical procedures and diagnostics. Faculty speakers reflected on how much the students learned in the last year, and the obstacles they overcame to do so. This year’s class experienced floods, regional power outages, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on health care, in addition to the rigorous academic program. APPLICATION - Any leader can incorporate reflection and recognition during or after a project. REFLECT - Reflecting on what was done well and what was learned develops a culture of learning, increasing talent satisfaction and innovation while stabilizing long-term growth. Have teams identify their hurdles and accomplishments:
RECOGNIZE - When recognizing a goal reached during or after a project, comment on:
CELEBRATIONS STRENGTHEN PERSONAL RELATOINSHIPS “The families were recognized for the support they gave their students.” -Alfred Sadler, M.D. Keynote Speaker The school first recognized families for their contributions to their students’ learning and success. Higher education comes at an increasing cost for families. The time commitment required to succeed stresses home life and relationships. Family time is often displaced by study groups and special meetings. Classmates and faculty can appear to hijack calendars such that family often feels left behind. Additionally, stressed students can appear overly demanding of their loved ones. They not only are less available to support families, but also require support themselves when they struggle with a rigorous and demanding 28-month program. Recognizing families first increases a family’s positive association with the program and their student’s demanding career choice. Including family in the ceremony’s recognition affirms their continued supportive role and encourages students to recognize their support going forward. The Program Director thanked families in detail for their support, drawing a standing ovation, cheers, and loving gestures from students to their families at the ceremony. At that point, the families knew they were fully vested in the rest of the ceremony to follow. APPLICATION - Work environments benefit from sincere recognition of and respect for a team member’s support network. While team members respond positively, the hidden impact on support networks is equally, if not more valuable. When support networks view an organization positively, they are more likely to support your team members’ success and relationship to the organization. Ask yourself, “what are my team’s families saying about me, our team, and the organization?” In my professional networking training, I ask leaders to consider the impression they leave behind them. Are those family members supportive of your team’s work or are you, the team, or the organization a thorn in their side? I call it the smile test. If they smile when they think of their loved on at work, your team’s productivity and retention will be higher. A few simple actions – sincerely and empathetically executed – will help show that you value your team’s support network:
Team members will work best when their families support their work and see it as a positive part of their lives. When you value your talent’s support network, you value your talent’s talent, and improving that retention improves your firm’s productivity and talent-retention. CELEBRATIONS STRENGTHEN TEAM RELATIONSHIPS “There was a great sense of celebration and accomplishment shared by everyone who attended and we all left with a strong feeling of gratitude for what had been accomplished together as a faculty - student - family team. By taking the time to celebrate, we all had a chance to feel the emotions together and as we talked at the end of the ceremony, this was very powerful.” -Alfred Sadler, M.D. Keynote Speaker The White Coat Ceremony tradition creates a strong bonding moment by celebrating students’ shared experience, closing their didactic training by affirming their relationships before they depart for clinical training at offices, clinics, and hospitals. Strengthening these relationships helps reinforce that students are a support network for each other throughout their careers, and that their training program is their common bond. These strong relationships increase career success for the students and improves loyalty (and future donations) to the school. APPLICATION - Whether your team worked well together or struggled to find harmony, celebrating togetherness at the completion of your project affirms teamwork going forward.
Celebrating helps to cement good will, especially when it includes expressing gratitude to your team. CELEBRATIONS CREATE PAUSE POINTS Pause Points are spaces for a team-wide deep breath after a milestone. They make your teams feel appreciated and valued, and provide opportunity for deeper learning and reflection. White Coat Ceremonies gather students, faculty, and staff to honor the students and their past year’s work, and blocked time off the school’s calendar after the ceremony for a small respite. APPLICATION - Pause Points validate the importance of the accomplishment you have just celebrated, and give opportunity to recharge before the next task. They create space for subtle learnings to reveal themselves through quiet, passive reflection. A pause could be:
By eliminating pressured focus and distractions, Pause Points let deeper experiences bubble up to conscious awareness, improving individual and group learning. Pause Points also improve talent retention. Your team gave you an extra effort during the project; giving back a little afterward is a concrete way to show gratitude and make your team feel appreciated. CELEBRATIONS BENEFIT LEADERS, TOO The faculty and staff who plan and lead the White Coat Ceremony also benefit from the ritual. They remind themselves why they continue to work hard every year to guide these students toward their healthcare goals. They reflect on the year and their own efforts. They celebrate the joys of watching the students step into their roles and learning. They pause from the rigor of running the program to relish the good fruits of their work. These effects improve the leadership team’s job satisfaction and productivity, increases their loyalty to the program, improves their bonds as a teaching team, and helps retain their talents. ***** Celebrating milestones creates opportunity to recognize and reflect on skills learned, goals reached, and relationships built. It develops a culture of learning and growth. It creates Pause Points for teams and leaders that will benefit your teams, leaders, and organization with increased productivity, loyalty, and retention. Adopting the White Coat Ceremony format can bring these benefits to your organization.
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Megan Mayer
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