Yesterday 160 young men and women entered the medical profession by entering the University of Louisville School of Medicine. We held a White Coat ceremony as a rite of passage for these awesome young bright, diverse, and passionate young people. Almost 1,000 attended as students, family, significant others, and friends. It was my great honor to deliver the keynote address. We discussed the role of compassion and mindfulness and how these lead to resilience. I quoted Wendall Berry, a great poet and essayist who lives nearby: “Medicine is an exact science until applied; application involves intuition, a sense of probability, gut feeling, guesswork, and error.” This is the “art of medicine” that involves open communication, integrity, trust, and partnership.
