A white coat ceremony was held for the 1st-year students of Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Dentistry. During the ceremony, attended by families, Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan addressed the students, stating; “To be a good dentist, you need to be fifty percent psychologist.”
The ceremony, held at the Ibn-i Sina Auditorium of Üsküdar Üniversitesi NP Dental and Health Campus, saw full participation from the academic staff of the Faculty of Dentistry. In the program, which also drew great interest from families, students experienced the excitement of donning their white coats with their loved ones.
Dilan Çayır: “We thank our families who make every sacrifice”
The ceremony, with high participation from families, began with opening speeches by Dilan Çayır and Batuhan Yanoğlu, first-year students of Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Dentistry. Çayır said; “I salute with respect and love our dear families who work day and night for my success and the success of all my fellow students, and all our professors who strive for our development.”
Batuhan Yanoğlu: “We are working to become good physicians”
Batuhan Yanoğlu, a first-year student at Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Dentistry, also stated; “Dear families and esteemed professors, have no doubt that we are working diligently to complete our faculty and honor your efforts. We will practice our profession throughout our careers by adhering to all the ethical values we learn here, and the experiences of our valuable professors will always guide us.”
Prof. Dr. Yumuşhan Güney: “The meaning of medicine includes not only healing but also making correct judgments and having a moral and ethical stance”
Subsequently, as part of the opening speeches, Dean of Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Dentistry, Prof. Dr. Yumuşhan Güney, took the podium. Güney emphasized the meaning and importance of the physician’s white coat that students were wearing for the first time; “From now on, all people—children, elderly, women, men, Eastern, Western—will be your friends and siblings. All people will expect this from you. They will see you this way. Because you will touch the lives of humanity, become a member of their families, and enter their private spheres. This is undoubtedly a dizzying embrace, an embrace not bestowed upon every profession or discipline. All of this will undoubtedly require arduous work. This difficulty will not just be one inherent to being a physician. In addition to being good physicians, we will also strive to understand the era, understand life, and understand people, and we will do this with great importance. Because the meaning of medicine includes not only healing but also making correct judgments and having a moral and ethical stance. This is a common value not only in our ancient tradition but in all ancient traditions. Our ethical sensitivity, our ethical stance, will illuminate the path to happiness for our students. This stance, this sensitivity, will protect our hearts. A person whose heart is corrupted also has a corrupted brain. For a person with a corrupted heart and brain to practice medicine is one of the greatest catastrophes that can befall humanity. Because happiness only nests in protected hearts.”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “If you don’t like helping, you cannot do this profession”
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan also drew attention to the importance of the patient-dentist bond in dentistry during his speech at the ceremony.
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated; “You have embarked on a challenging education like that of the Faculty of Dentistry. First, I want to intimidate you a little. Because in the patient-physician relationship, the Faculty of Dentistry comes to the forefront even more. For one, you, our students, need to be fifty percent psychologists. You know the public perception regarding the dental chair. You know how afraid people are to come there. Only if you can manage them, can you fully perform the treatment. That’s why we introduced a positive psychology course. A Positive Psychology Communication Skills course. It covers many skills such as empathy, stress management, anger management, self-awareness, self-knowledge, understanding others, and sharing. These will be very useful to you. Therefore, at the beginning of your profession, I would like to recommend that you keep this in the back of your mind. Wearing a white coat symbolizes innocence. It symbolizes doing your job well. This profession is one with a high sense of responsibility. You are dealing with human health, something no one else can do. Being diligent is not enough. You also need to be benevolent. We are in the profession of helping people. If you don’t like helping, you cannot do this profession. Helping, dealing with troubled people, listening to pain – this is such a profession. Therefore, relieving pain is very important in dentistry, as you know. For this reason, intellect, emotion, and heart alone are not enough. Being able to balance them is important. But first, one must intend to do so. That’s why, if there is something beautiful, and behind it, a beautiful effort, a beautiful desire awakens. When a beautiful desire awakens, a person begins to meet needs and make progress. I wish our young people success. May it be auspicious.”
Musical performance enchanted the guests…
During the white coat ceremony, a musical performance by 1st-year students of the Faculty of Dentistry—Ömer Tozlu, Esmanur Yüce, Sena Ateş, Beyza Kaya, Damla Nalbant, Muhammet Süleyman Yaman, Raşit Hasanov, and Hazem Dahrau—was met with a standing ovation from the attendees.
The academic staff, including Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Vice-Rector, Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine Prof. Dr. Hikmet Koçak, and Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry Prof. Dr. Yumuşhan Günay, helped the students don their white coats.
Exhibition also opened…
The White Coat Ceremony concluded with a group commemorative photo session, and the opening and viewing by families of an exhibition featuring the works created by Faculty of Dentistry students in their ‘Aesthetic Structuring and Form’ course.
