Source: https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/white-coat-ceremony-2019/ Copyright: © 2019 Koh Zhi Kai
This speech was originally delivered to the NUS Medicine Class of 2025 by 73rd NUS Medical Society Vice-President, Ms Tay Wei Xuan, on 12 March 2022, Saturday, for the NUS Medicine White Coat Ceremony 2022
73rd NUS MedSoc Vice-President - Tay Wei Xuan
Good evening Dr Valerie Teo, Dean Professor Chong Yap Seng, Vice Deans, faculty, staff of the Dean’s Office, guests, parents, and my dear juniors.
It is my honour to be able to celebrate this momentous occasion with you today. To the Class of 2025, my heartiest congratulations for completing the Phase II Professional examinations, and for sitting here today in this Auditorium, in the top medical school in Asia.
Well, giving a white coat address is a huge responsibility, and as I sat at my table and stared at my google document titled “Class of 2025 White coat ceremony address”, I asked myself - what life lessons can I possibly share that you don’t already know? I mean, unlike past years where the auditorium was packed with pre-medical students - wide-eyed, yet to experience what medical school is like, all of you have finished 2 years of medical school. And I believe that over the past 2 years, all of you have had numerous experiences - good ones, and maybe even bad ones. Some of you may have found great friends, friends who will tide you through medical school; some of you may have gotten into relationships, and above all, some of you may have learnt life lessons along the way and grown as people, through the many takeaways during your first two years of medical school - your interactions with the brilliant people around you, your experiences participating in the numerous OCIPs, LCIPs, or the many acronyms that you can think of, and your lessons learnt as a medical student, through tutorials, lectures and clinical exposure.
So I thought, you guys are probably experienced enough. But perhaps I can share with you what it’s like to step into clinical years. I have to admit that I’m not the most experienced, ultimately I’m just a year 4 medical student. However, I’ve had a taste of what medicine looks like, in the wards, operating theater, or even in the outpatient clinics, and today I hope to share with you the takeaways that I’ve gleaned over the past 4 years of my journey.
This is what medicine looks like.
Many of you are probably familiar with this book - The Five People You Meet in Heaven, a New York Times best seller written by Mitch Albom. For those who have yet to read the book, the premise of the book is that when you die, you meet five people. And these five people are people who have had an important impact on your life, and sometimes, they are people whom you have met in passing, or people whom you don’t really know.
Today, I would like to frame my speech in a similar context. In medicine, head knowledge gifts you the ability to diagnose a patient, but it’s the heart behind why you choose to do certain things, the compassion that fuels your late nights, and the people around you, your family and friends who lift you up constantly, that make you a safe and good doctor.
In medicine, there are 5 groups of people whom you will meet along the way. These may be people who pass through your life fleetingly, but make an impact that knows no equal. They may also be people who will stay in your life forever, and walk with you, hand-in-hand, through your journey as a doctor. And these are people whom I have personally met, as I find my way around medical school as a clinical year student, and these are the people whom I will forever be grateful for. Hence, I present to you - The Five People You Meet in Medicine.
And the first group of people are none other than your patients. A famous saying by William Osler goes - "He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all." Indeed, medicine is incomplete without our patients, who are also our best teachers. The doctor heals, but only because the patient guides the way.
There was this lady whom I met during my Internal Medicine posting. She was admitted to the hospital for a seizure, and she was under the care of the team that I was attached to. After morning rounds, my consultant beckoned to me - “Eh, Wei Xuan, year 3 right? Go and clerk her and examine her later. You can present your findings to me tomorrow.” And admittedly I was quite apprehensive, partially because I saw the lady scolding my Medical Officer during rounds, and so I thought to myself “Aiyoh, I have to clerk the scariest patient on the team? *shakes head*”. But I was quite wrong, and this patient turned out to be such a beautiful soul, and an inspiring teacher. As I spoke to her, and did a full neurological examination on her - mind you, I did a full lower limb, upper limb, cranial nerve and cerebellar examination on her. I spent more than an hour by her bedside, and yet during the whole process, she calmly guided me through my maneuvers, gave me feedback for my examination technique, and patiently let me take history from her and examine her. At the end, as I sat beside her and listened to her life stories, she held my hand, and she told me this - “I know that you’re still young, but I hope that you can keep this passion for your patients in you. When you become a senior doctor next time, spend time with your patients. Show them that you care for them. Even 5 minutes is enough.”
This story is not exclusive to this lady. In fact, many of our patients have done the same. Despite being in pain, or discomfort, they chose to allow a medical student to examine them, with the hope that we will learn something out of their condition, to hone our skills such that we can do better for our future patients. Hence, time and again, I have found it integral to remember that our patients are our greatest teachers. It is only through their individual stories, that we ever become good physicians. We need our patients as much as they need us, if not more.
And then there’s the second group of people - the mentors whom we meet. They are our junior doctors, registrars, consultants, and even our seniors in medical school. These are the people who will impart in you not just medical knowledge, but also words of wisdom which will guide your way through medicine. These are the people who will leave you awe-struck at their grit, passion and heart to serve. And they are the same people who will take the extra effort to teach their juniors - to hold post-call bedside teachings, to hold zoom teaching sessions outside of working hours, or to share with their juniors pearls of wisdom so that their juniors wouldn’t make the same mistakes as they did.
I fondly remember this conversation that I had with one of my seniors. We were in the same team, and he was post-call. He could have gone home at 8am, and yet he was still here in the hospital at 12pm, making changes, teaching a medical student like me, and waiting on an MRI scan for his patient. And when I asked him about it, this was his reply “There is a magic flame within humanity, and I see this in the post-call doctor - one who stays back for an additional 30 minutes after a 24-hour shift, just to finish typing notes for a patient. One who waits at the diagnostic radiology department for an additional hour just to get a scan for a patient. One who cares for the patient more than the self, and chooses to stay. The post-call doctor does not do this for the gratitude from their patients, but for that magic flame, that special flame that lights up within them when they leave the hospital that day, knowing that they did something good, albeit small. And I think that this magic flame is what keeps me going.”
When times get tough, I like to revisit this quote, because it’s one of the most beautiful quotes that I’ve heard. Truly, our seniors impart in us words of wisdom, and values such as resilience, grit and passion.
Moving on to the third group of people. I want you to take a look at the people sitting beside you. These may be people that you have made friends with over the past two years. They may also be people whom you will meet someday, and become friends with.
One thing that I’ve learnt is that medicine is not a journey that you can walk alone. Soon, you may realise how precious the people around you are. Well this is a picture of my year 2 CG - I placed it here because I thought that we look kinda cute. But truly, these are the people whom you will grow together with, and graduate together with. These are the people whom you will study together with, be it practice your history taking or your physical examinations with, and the people who will guide you on how to improve and be better as a person.
The fourth group of people are the reasons why you are sitting in this auditorium today. And this group of people are your parents, your family members. I urge you to think about your parents who are here with you today, your family members who have supported your journey thusfar.
But beyond this, as we find ourselves being busy in clinicals, studying for exams, and being involved in our commitments, medicine also involves the understanding from our family members that we will be busy. And above all, we would not be here today, if not for the immense love and hard work that our parents and family members have showered us with.
Lastly, when you are home tonight, I would like to invite you to take a few minutes to pen down any thoughts and hopes that you have, and write a short message to your future self. I hope that you will keep this message safe, and open it again when you graduate, or when you are going through a difficult period. I hope that this will serve as a tiny reminder of who you once were, and what you had aspired to do, to be better and to touch the lives of others.
This is because the last person that you will meet would be yourself - who you are. As you step into clinical years, you learn new things on a daily basis, discover more things about yourself as a person, and hone your personality constantly with the hope of being better for your patients. As you embrace these new changes, I urge you to still revisit who you once were - the person that you are right now. Medicine is not a bed of roses, and when things get tough, I urge you to revisit the aspirations that may have slipped your mind along the way, and the reasons why you wanted to do medicine in the first place.
Today, I challenge all of you to go beyond being a student to being an advocate for your patients, to not only receive from your seniors but to also give back to your juniors, to use your knowledge to serve the communities that our parents and grandparents live in, to keep an open mind and an open heart, to embrace challenges and step out of your comfort zone, and to strive to not only cure physically but to also heal emotionally.
When these five groups of people come your way, I urge you to welcome them with open arms, and to always show gratitude for them. As you step into your clinical years, I believe that you will not only make a difference for yourself, but also for the lives of the thousands of people and patients whom you will soon meet.
The road ahead may be uncertain, but it’s also filled with faith, mentorship and hope. I look forward to the great things that this class will bring forth.
Thank you.
