“The white coat symbolizes health and healing,” says Kayse M. Shrum, D.O., president-designate of the OSU Center for Health Sciences. Shrum also holds the George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chair of Medical Excellence and Service and the Saint Francis Health System Endowed Chair of Pediatrics. “The color white symbolizes virtue and integrity. It is an outward expression of your commitment to your patients, their families and your community to provide compassionate, quality care to those in need. The white coat serves to remind us of our obligation to society to use our education with utmost respect for the betterment of society, always acting with integrity and virtue.” The symbol of the white coat evolved during the early 20th-century emphasis on antisepsis and cleanliness, Shrum says. The coat became a sign of the purity associated with these concepts. Prior to those times, physicians wore black, as a doctor’s visit – often a last resort during that era – was usually a formal and solemn occasion. Today, Shrum says, “Medicine begins as a career path. When you graduate from medical school you become a physician, but as you mature in your training you realize being a doctor is not what you do, it is who you are. When you take the oath, you are saying, ‘I will use my knowledge to help those in need anytime and any place, because life doesn’t conform to office hours.’” Here are what a few of Oklahoma’s most dedicated physicians have to say about their profession, and what the white coat means to them.
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OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2013
pHOtO BY BraNdON ScOtt.
There are many ubiquitous symbols that represent a doctor – the stethoscope, the snake and staff, the gloves. But none is more enduring, or more laden with meaning for both patients and doctors, than that of the white coat.