Saturday, August 13, 2005

Talk about reaching for the stars.

Randy Renegar, East Carolina University's assistant dean for student affairs, stands 5 feet, 10½ inches, but could have used another foot or so during Friday's fifth annual white coat ceremony at the ECU Brody School of Medicine.

Renegar was helping new Brody students slip on their white physician coats, symbolizing the beginning of their medical careers, when he suddenly came face-to-back with 6-foot, 9-inch Heath Jones, a former Princeton University basketball player.

With a little help from Jones – in the form of a forward shoulder roll and waist bend – Renegar managed to fold the skyscraper into his coat, but not before the nearly full crowd in the Brody auditorium chuckled their appreciation for the odd couple.

About half an hour earlier, 37 women and 35 men – all North Carolina residents – had marched to heroic classical music as they entered the faintly darkened auditorium, white coats draped over their left arms.

Dr. Cynda Johnson, dean of the Brody School of Medicine, welcomed the students to the ceremony, then turned the lectern over to keynote speaker Dr. M.J. Barchman of the Brody Department of Internal Medicine.

Barchman, who has given the ceremony's keynote speech the previous three years, emphasized compassion in her address to the students. She told of her own battles with asthma and how a pediatrician influenced her decision to become a doctor.

"He was the nicest man on the planet," she said. "He's the reason I'm here, today."

A few minutes later, she distilled her message further.

"That's what's called trust," she said, referring to another doctor-patient relationship she'd illustrated. "You need to be able to hold someone's hand."

Kim Smith was among those listening. With her 71 other compatriots, she'd waited for the start of the ceremony in a second floor classroom before entering the auditorium.

Though thrilled to be embarking on her medical career, the 2003 ECU biology graduate figures her med school workload will be like "drinking water from a fire hydrant. It never lets up."

"I can handle the content," said the 24-year-old before the start of the ceremony. "It's just the actual workload I'm worried about."

Chris Bullers, a 25-year-old biology graduate from Catawba College in Salisbury, spent the previous three years working for a pharmaceutical company. His "abrupt transition" will place him back in the classroom, and he's excited about it, he said. He's particularly looking forward to his gross anatomy studies.

"I've always enjoyed the dissections – the cutting," he said. "I'm looking forward to it."

Celeste Campbell, 22, a Wake Forest University health and exercise science graduate, has wanted to be a doctor since age 3, she said.

"I used to carry my doctor bag around with me," she said with a grin. "I'd be a doctor for my doll and my parents."

Pui-Nn Ho, a 21-year-old Duke University biology graduate, also set her sites on the medical profession early on. By age 5, she'd already made a poster proclaiming her desire to be a doctor.

Her parents laminated the declaration and displayed it on the refrigerator door, she said.

Ho is among a handful of first-year med students who anticipate a struggle with their bio-chemistry class.

"I took bio-chem in college and thought it was really hard," she said. "It will be a challenge. We will all find out."

Steven Settle, a 25-year-old N.C. State University biology/chemistry graduate, seconded the notion.

Bio-chemistry differs from other science courses, he said, because it requires not just detailed memorization, but application of the knowledge, too.

Settle shook his head with a laugh, and concluded, "It's just bad stuff."

Even in a new white coat.

Paul Dunn can be contacted at pdunn@coxnc.com or 329-9566.