Clinicians Ceremony Tradition

The Wayne State University School of Medicine Clinician’s Ceremony is a key mile marker on our Highways to Excellence M.D. curriculum. This ceremonial event is held in the Spring, before the beginning of the third year of medical school.  It denotes a rite of passage for our Physicians in Training as they embark on a pivotal segment of their medical education journey: the beginning of core clinical clerkships. On clerkships, students engage in full direct patient care alongside doctors, residents, and other members of the healthcare team to learn and gain experience in primary care and medical specialties. The ceremony is coordinated with the school’s Gold Humanism Honors Society chapter underscoring the challenges and imperatives to providing compassionate, collaborative and scientifically excellent care to all patients.
 

​During the ceremony, Clerkship Directors present their incoming students with a symbolic gift of a stethoscope reinforcing the sacredness of the doctor-patient relationship through physician connectedness to the life heartbeat of the patient. They also receive pins to wear on their white coats as a constant reminder of their duty to their patients and their profession. The ceremony concludes with the Dean of Clinical Education leading the new class of Physicians In Training to follow the Clinician Pledge of Ethics.
 
Recognizing our students both individually and as a class by induction into the ranks of clinician marks a very unique celebratory moment for our school and the extended medical education community.