Our class attended our White Coat Ceremony, where we committed ourselves to abide by a code of ethics that our class wrote together over the past two months, and to become covenanted physicians. Not to be taken lightly. And language I can only imagine would be found in this ancient, Biblical land. What a blessing to have studied the progressive revelation of Christ through God's covenants before coming here: to understand His view of my pledge to Him and to humanity through our ceremony and to glimpse again His call to me to bring His healing in the place of sickness, oppression, and brokenness as a doctor.
You stand today in the presence of your teachers of medicine and its precepts.
You enter into a covenant with medicine to fulfill its commitments to the best of your ability with wisdom and integrity. That there may be established a generation of physicians motivated actively and dedicated faithfully to aid the suffering human being.
This is the covenant into which I enter with you today:
to stand at the side of the suffering individual day and night at all times and at all hours.
You shall protect
human life maximally from the mother's womb, and let its welfare ever be your chief concern.
You shall help
the will whether stranger, alien or citizen, of whatever social status.
You shall seek
the soul of those who are sick, to restore their spirit, through understanding and compassion.
Do not be hasty
in judgement but consider your advice carefully tempering wisdom in the crucible of experience.
Be faithful
to those who put their trust in you: Do not reveal their secrets, nor act as a gossip.
Honor and respect
your teachers who have labored to guide you in the path of medicine.
Guard the honor
of your colleagues zealously, for their honor is your own.
Increase wisdom
and do not become worn down by the struggle, for Wisdom is your life and He has the power to sustain life.
Use your wisdom
for the health of the public as well as to bring healing to the ills of the community.
May the words of this covenant be close and dear to you, articulated clearly and felt deeply that you may carry them out.
And you will respond - AMEN.
AMEN - We will act accordingly.
With reverent hearts and acute minds we regard the choices and decisions we must make as physicians amidst joy and suffering, hope and fear. We respond to this calling, acknowledging the solemnity and weight of our responsibilities with purpose, and embrace this difficult and imperfect journey:
Always sustaining our love for what we do to drive our actions: free from contempt, greed, or apathy;
Always facing each day with the promise to do our best and to favor grace, patience, and strength when we struggle;
Always discerning the influences of our power, for good and for bad;
Always pursuing knowledge of medicine to improve the quality of care we give;
Always deepening our understanding of humanity and culture to serve our patients with respect and compassion;
Always recognizing our limits in what we can offer to heal, but never giving up or ceasing to care.
I commit.
To live with intention beyond my borders, to give voice to silence, to serve humanity for the glory of God, furthering the restoration of His Kingdom until He comes again.
(All true stories - very worth watching at least the beginning and the end. I am the patient in the last minute.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzXY0RJT8q8
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