Sunday 18 December 2022 - For the students in the first master of medicine at VUB, last Saturday was a day to remember. During the traditional White Coat ceremony, they received their coveted doctor’s coat and UZ Brussel badge. The ceremony marks the transition from theoretical lessons to real medical practice in a hospital: an eagerly awaited and important step on their medical journey.
UZ Brussel dean Dirk Devroey and CEO Marc Noppen handed over the snow white coat and UZ Brussel badge to the students in the first master of medicine. After an interruption due to Covid, the students could once again look forward to this unique event.
Student Lauren Cools: “It’s a great day because it’s a milestone: the switch from pure theory to practice, everyone looks forward to it.” “Now it’s real,” adds fellow student Vincent Mingneau: “You can start working with patients in practice. You’re well prepared for it, but now you’re really going to apply that knowledge and I think that’s great.”
During the ceremony, students are told clearly what is expected of them, ethically and deontologically. Duties and responsibilities have been covered intensively in lessons and in preparations for the internship, but coming from Professor Michel Deneyer, vice-president of the Order of Physicians, it makes an extra impression.
From the second semester, the students will spend most of their training in the hospital, in real medical practice. Medical students at VUB start their clinical internships earlier than their colleagues. By offering more varied internships, VUB wants to give all its students the chance to discover where their interests lie and how they can make the most of their skills.
Vincent Mingneau has high expectations: “I find it reassuring that from now on we will be personally supervised. We’ll no longer all sit together in an auditorium for a general explanation. We will learn more by seeing what you can or cannot do for an individual patient.”
This year, the ceremony took place in a special and symbolic location: the shell of the new medical-technical block of the UZ Brussel. These students in training will be the first to work in this high-tech building in a few years. The construction is part of the Ruimteplan, an expansion of the existing hospital complex and a realignment into a modern, accessible site with 67,000m² of additional care space.
With the white doctor’s coat on their shoulders and a hospital badge around their neck, the students have shown their proud supporters that a new intake is ready for a comprehensive 19-month internship.
Future intern Ana Potvlieghe sums it up: “We’re ready for it, and we’re very much looking forward to seeing patients.”
