The Keynote Address at this year’s White Coat Ceremony for incoming University of Mississippi School of Medicine students was given by Dr. Scott M. Rodgers, the school’s Chief Academic Officer. Speaking to a large audience of first-year students and their families, this professor of psychiatry did not deliver a formal salutatory but instead personalized his address as an intimate letter to a new class of 166 M1s from someone a little further along the journey of medicine. His letter consisted of multiple “tips”: First, “smell the roses” along the way and always “be present” in the here and now, despite the daily grind. He further advised the students to maintain a “good routine,” “be open to possibilities,” and “channel Yoda,” referring to the wise Jedi Master who trained Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force in the Star Wars films.
Perhaps, the most important of his tips encouraged the students to “stay humble.” Our extensive education and training as physicians, as well as our years of experience, should never engender hubris but rather the attitude of humility in every act of our art, in every dealing with our patients and our peers. In these days of epidemic narcissism and self-conceit, humility is “the” essential character trait for physicians. More than a century ago, Sir William Osler agreed: “For the sake of what it brings, the grace of humility is a precious gift.” He added, “Absolute truth is hard to reach in matters related to our fellow creatures, healthy or diseased,” while asserting that “errors in judgment must occur in the practice of an art which consists largely in balancing probabilities.”
Like Dr. Rodgers, Osler encouraged his medical students to keep the “reed of humility” always in their hands as a token to remember “the length of the way, the difficulties to be overcome, and the fallibility of the faculties upon which you depend.” Mistakes are part of a good physician’s daily practice. They should be acknowledged and regretted, and, most importantly, our errors are lessons which can improve our art. As physicians we need to cultivate humility and introspection in our daily medical practices as we seek an often elusive truth.
Contact me at drluciuslampton@gmail.com. — Lucius M. Lampton, MD, Editor