UHAS holds maiden White Coat ceremony
The first batch of medical students at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), who have successfully completed their pre-clinical training in the basic sciences, have begun the clinical phase of their training.
Advertisement
The clinical aspect of their training requires the students to apply their knowledge in the basic medical sciences by working in the wards and operating theatres.
The maiden White Coat ceremony of UHAS was held for 42 medical students to enable them to be deployed to the various health facilities for the practical learning.
The short ceremony is a rite of passage,and involves a ceremonial gate that the students have to pass through in becoming doctors.
It also involves a formal robing of the students in a doctor’s traditional wear, the white coat, which symbolises professionalism and compassion in patient care.
Trained for the nation
At the ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of UHAS, Prof. Owusu Gyapong, advised the students to continue to invest in books to get them abreast of modern medical techniques and added that they must be dedicated to serve anywhere they were posted to.
“You were trained in this region for the entire nation”, he indicated. He appealed to parents to support their children financially as “this level is very challenging for which reason they should be well-equipped financially”.
Prof. Gyapong assured parents that they would soon reap all the investments they had made in their children’s education and would not regret supporting them.
The Dean of the School of Medicine, Prof. Harry Tagbor, advised the students to treat all patients equally and not on the basis of their wealth or social standing.
Treat all patients equally
“Do not have a different attitude for patients who are ‘big people’ or who know ‘big people’ and a different attitude for others who are ‘no bodies’,” Prof. Tagbor stated.
He said it was important for the students to relate well with other health professionals such as the nurses and laboratory technicians to enable them to perform their duties well.
Prof. Tagbor also urged them to abide by the ethics that govern the medical practice in Ghana by “doing what you know you should do and not only when you are being watched”.
More progress at UHAS
In a speech read on his behalf by the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said the government was aware of the progress being made at UHAS and the support needed to enable the university soar higher.
“In this light, the President has himself directed the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and other relevant agencies to put in place measures to convert the regional hospital into a teaching hospital and also that the process should be hastened since the conversion is critical in the training of our young medical doctors,” Dr Letsa said.
