HARROGATE, Tenn. — Tyler Woolum, of Pineville, received a white coat at the White Coat Ceremony at Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM) in Harrogate, Tennessee, on June 16, 2018. The White Coat Ceremony at LMU-DCOM is a special ceremony designed to mark a student’s entrance into the clinical rotations of their medical school training.

Woolum is beginning his third-year as an osteopathic medical student at LMU-DCOM. Woolum received an undergraduate degree from The Citadel and will be starting clinical rotations this fall.

The first White Coat Ceremony was held in 1993 at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and is now a standard ritual in institutions of both allopathic and osteopathic medical education across the country. During the Ceremony, each medical student is presented and “robed” with his or her short white laboratory coat, formalizing and welcoming the student’s entrance into the study of medicine. The White Coat Ceremony is a time for medical students to hear words of wisdom and encouragement from their mentors. The Ceremony provides an opportunity to reflect on what it means to become a physician and a time for students to reaffirm their commitment to becoming physicians. It is also an opportunity for the medical school to reaffirm its commitment to providing the education and clinical training necessary to help each student achieve his or her professional goals.