New medical students recite the Physician's Pledge after donning their white coats.
See the person, not just the illness, distinguished physician urges new medical students
To truly care for patients, you must recognize them as whole persons and not reduce them to their medical profiles, an expert on dignity in health care told UM’s newest class of future doctors.
“Strive to be more than human-body mechanics. Aspire to be healers,” Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov urged the 140-member Class of 2028 – the largest medical class in UM history – during Inaugural Day Exercises for the Max Rady College of Medicine.
“You are about to spend years looking at your books, and you’ll soon be spending years looking at medical charts. But I implore you to look up from those books and charts and see your patients. Patients will not care what you know, until they know that you care.”
Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov
Chochinov, distinguished professor of psychiatry at UM and senior scientist at the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute, gave the Alan Klass Memorial Address at the event on Aug. 21 on the Bannatyne campus.
Internationally renowned for his research on palliative care, he is a laureate of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. His latest book is Dignity in Care: The Human Side of Medicine.
Chochinov’s research shows that when a patient feels “seen” as a person, they are more likely to trust the physician and disclose their health concerns. His studies also show that health-care providers who stop recognizing patients’ humanity “become less satisfied with their job, more robotic in their work and more vulnerable to burnout.”
Face your own biases and don’t make assumptions about patients’ lives and priorities, Chochinov told the physicians-in-training. If you bring kindness and compassion to every clinical encounter, he added, “you are playing your small part in bending the arc of the universe towards hope, healing and peace.”
The Inaugural Day Exercises included the ceremonial cloaking of the students in their first white coats and the recitation of the Physician’s Pledge.
The students received “White Coat Notes” – messages of wisdom from medical alumni of the Class of 1974, who graduated 50 years ago, and the Class of 1999, who graduated 25 years ago. “Avoid hubris. Embrace humility,” one alum wrote.
The Class of 2028 includes 14 Indigenous students and 48 students with rural attributes, meaning that they have rural roots or rural work, volunteer or leadership experience. Two French-speaking students are enrolled in the bilingual stream.
The class’s ethnic and socio-economic diversity reflects the Max Rady College of Medicine’s commitment to reflecting the Manitoba population in its student body.
Student Antonina Kandiurin, 24, is a York Factory Cree woman from Churchill. She holds a kinesiology degree from UM. Everything she wore to the ceremony signified her northern First Nation identity, including caribou antler earrings.
“I wanted to be loud and proud of who I am as an Indigenous woman and to represent … my family, my community and the many, many people that have supported me to get here,” she said.
“I was almost crying onstage because my parents have worked so hard for me to have opportunities like this.”
Kodley Bouachanthala, 37, was born in Laos. His family spent three years in a refugee camp in Thailand before coming to Canada when he was a small child. Raised in Morden, Bouachanthala holds a UM master’s degree as a physician assistant. He said he wants to advocate for refugees and newcomers as a doctor.
“Being up there on the stage, I couldn’t help but think about my parents and the sacrifices they made,” Bouachanthala said about receiving his white coat. “I’m so grateful.… Being a refugee, growing up in a rural community, I’m just glad to be part of a faculty that recognizes diversity and equity.”
Dieko Oyegunle, 23, grew up in Nigeria and came to Canada at age 17. She earned a degree in biomedical sciences at Brandon University.
“Right when the white coat ceremony started [I thought], ‘Oh, wow. The moment is real,’” she said. “That was the most emotional part. Also the speech from Dr. Chochinov – I really took that in.”
Martha Hinton, 41, has been a lab scientist for the past 17 years. Raised in Winnipeg, she holds a master’s in physiology and most recently worked as a research technician and lab manager at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.
Part of what inspired her to become a physician was recently caring and advocating for her grandfather, who lived with dementia. “I really resonated a lot with what Dr. Chochinov was speaking of,” Hinton said.
“I want to be mindful of that when I’m interacting with people – not just a quick, down-to-business approach, but taking time to care and listen, and be present with the person who’s in front of me.”
Watch an Instagram Reel recapping the Inaugural Exercises for the Medicine Class of 2028.