Cloak of Compassion

Last night, Devin reached a milestone in his hard and laborious studies in school:

The White Coat Ceremony

The White Coat Ceremony is a “right of passage” for students beginning the study of medicine that encourages a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine. The event emphasizes the importance of both scientific excellence and compassionate care for the patient…The authority of dress is serious and purposeful, not social, casual, or random. It is a guide to both the patient and clinician on how to react and relate to one another…The uniform should convey to the even most anxious patient a sense of seriousness and purpose that helps provide reassurance and confidence that his/her complaints will be dealt with competently and seriously. The white coat is the cloak of compassion.

With two years of hard earned knowledge behind him, Devin will now don the white coat as he enters the Optometry clinic at Pacific University. He’ll be seeing his own patients, with a little help of his attending doctor Dr. Yudcovitch. He will be learning far more in the clinic than he could ever hope to learn from the endless power point slides he has viewed the last few years in class (I would guess the number of slides would be multiples of thousands. At least 20,000 for four semesters).

I am so proud of him for sticking it out and making it to this point. He is always saying what a lofty goal this is for him, but I know he’s got it in him to succeed. 
Way to go, husband of mine!

Being awarded the white coat by Dr. Eakland

Reading the Optometric Oath to commit himself “to be steadfast in the performance” as an Optometrist:

The whole group: 

And I don’t think he could have done it without this great group of guys to help him through it all. They have all been incredibly supportive of each other, especially when it came down to the endless games of Landgrab played during valuable study time :) They’ve been great study partners, golf buddies, and friends:

Nor could they have done it as smoothly without their lovely wives:  

And Devin’s school career has definitely been a whole heck of a lot easier for me with this great group of girls! They have been amazingly supportive and FUN!

So while there’s still another two years of this, it’s great to get to this milestone. 

I’m thinking he’s lookin’ good in white :)