On April 20, 2012, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine held its annual White Coat Ceremony during which first-year medical students received the time-honored white coat. Following the observance, Health.mil asked keynote speaker and USUHS alumnus Army Col. (Dr.) Paul Pasquina to expand on the theme of his keynote address which was about humility and the practice of medicine in service to the nation.
Col. Pasquina is a West Point graduate who matriculated in the USUHS and earned his medical degree in 1991. He is currently chief of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and director of the Center for Rehabilitation Sciences Research at USUHS.
Health.mil: Many ideas must have come to mind as you were developing your keynote address. What prompted you to speak on the subject of humility?
Col. Pasquina: Typically when people talk about doctors, they talk about knowledge, compassion, empathy, discipline, hard work – there are a lot of adjectives. But you don’t hear the word humility that often. I can only say that in my practice, it’s been pretty humbling - the things I’ve seen since I graduated - over the past 20 years. You learn a lot in textbooks; you learn a lot from your professors, but you learn every day from your patients. And every day you’re reminded of your limits.
I think the human body, the human spirit, the human mind is really humbling when you start thinking about these things. What makes a human body work? How can we help facilitate that? And when we get the greatest minds in the world together to try to solve problems and they still can’t solve them, you really start realizing that the human body is a special thing. We do our best as physicians, but we can always do more.
In terms of the message to the medical students, I’ve come across too many health care providers in my profession who have been somewhat arrogant and not necessarily good listeners to other members of the medical team, or to the patients or their families. I think anything you can do to inspire health care providers to really listen to their patients, recognize that they don’t know everything, and understand they need to continually search for more information, whether it be from their patients or from other allied health professionals or from constantly reading, is fundamental. I think that’s an important message that they [students] needed to hear.
Health.mil: Thinking back on your freshman year at USUHS, what are some of your memories of preparing to receive your white coat?
Col. Pasquina: I remember receiving my white coat and thinking, ‘Wow. This is really cool.’ But there wasn’t a ceremony associated with it. We just kind of lined up and got our white coats and Dr. (Richard) MacDonald (USUHS associate dean for Student Affairs) was there. He’s a person who symbolizes humanism in medicine. I do remember that day being a meaningful one for me. It really didn’t hit me until I got it [the white coat]. Then I put it on. I kind of felt like, ‘Wow, this is real.’
Health.mil: As an esteemed USUHS alumnus, how meaningful is it to you to address the class of 2015 white coat recipients?
Col. Pasquina: It’s a big deal – a really big deal. I was honored when I was asked to speak. Coming back to your alma mater is always great. I have very, very warm feelings about this university. If it weren’t for this university, I wouldn’t be in the profession that I am; I wouldn’t be still in uniform and I wouldn’t have had the experiences of taking care of some of our nation’s heroes. So, I can’t speak any higher of the university and the opportunities I’ve been given in the military health system.