Doctor of Physical Therapy students receive white coats
The University of Arizona’s first Doctor of Physical Therapy students received their white coats during a May 1 ceremony.
Photo by Mitch Masilun, U of A Health Sciences Biocommunications
Members in the inaugural class of the University of Arizona’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program received their white coats, officially kicking off their first clinical assignments.
The May 1 ceremony for the historic class of 52 students in the School of Health Professions program in the U of A Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health is the latest milestone in the school’s first physical therapy program and a direct response by the university to a critical shortage of physical therapists across the state, particularly in underserved regions.
Kevin Lohenry, PhD, PA-C, vice dean of Health Professions Affairs and executive director of the School of Health Professions, shared a personal story of the traumatic brain injury his father suffered 15 years ago that showed his family firsthand the power of the white coat.
“It was physical therapists who became the key architects of his recovery, who gave my father back his movement, his dignity and pieces of himself that we feared were gone forever,” Lohenry said. “As a clinician, I watched those clinicians, those physical therapists, work with him with precision and patience and kindness and compassion. … To me, that is what this coat represents.”
Chris Childers, PT, PhD, founding director of the Physical Therapy Program and a professor, addressed the students and their friends and family by congratulating the Class of 2028 for its hard work and dedication in the last nine months. Now, she told them, real patients will act as their teachers. The coat, she said, symbolizes not the academic part of their education but “the standards of professionalism and caring.”
Click on any of the images below for a photo gallery of the white coat ceremony.
