Pharmacy students inducted at white-coat ceremony

The University of Queensland’s first-year pharmacy students received their white coats at a recent welcoming ceremony.

UQ’s Head of the School of Pharmacy Professor Nick Shaw said the First Year Engagement Ceremony was a way of inducting and embedding among students an early sense of responsibility and accountability to the profession.

“The 'coat' itself is a symbol of professionalism and a commitment to the health care professions,” Professor Shaw said.

“We hope this reinforces the important role they play in the community.

"Pharmacy is such a wonderful profession, steeped in history and with an exciting and challenging future – this ceremony is to remind the students that they are a critical part of it."

Professor Shaw said students would be required to wear the coats in counselling and while undertaking tutorials and oral exams.

During the ceremony on March 5 at Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence, Woolloongabba, 250 first year pharmacy students donned white coats.

First Year Engagement Ceremony has been adapted from similar North American pharmacy student ceremonies and differs from other health care white coat ceremonies that have traditionally marked the student’s transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences.

UQ’s School of Pharmacy hosted its inaugural First Year Engagement Ceremony in 2010, which was the first of its kind in Australia.

It is now an annual event sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (Queensland Branch).

Media: Nick Shaw, Head of School of Pharmacy, +61 7 3346 1701 or Stephanie Dunn, School of Pharmacy 3346 1926