White Coat Ceremony – Part Duex · The Angry Pharmacist

Table of Contents

Well well well…
Turns out my rant about the White Coat Creremony got mixed reviews according to my mole at the University of the Pacific (from where I heard, is where it all started).
Lets take a look at the breakdown:

To the professors/staff who hate me for ragging on your precious white coat ceremony:
Seriously, why get angry at me? Because I have the balls to publically call out how stupid your ceremony is? How everyone across the nation agrees with me as to the utter waste of money this mutual-masturbation session is? Seriously, have you taken a step back and realized why I think this is stupid?
1. Its a waste of money
2. You go to school because you want to learn. You shouldn’t have to attend a ceremony to make you feel “special” for what you are paying an assload of cash to go there for.
3. Its stupid, seriously. Its like a birthday party for a 2 year old, they aren’t going to remember anything and its just there to make YOU feel special.
4. You made it so the alumni couldn’t even attend! They are the ones who are footing the bill!
5. Some of your stupid students were actually excited about the whole thing!
6. Pride and respect for your future profession should come from your acts and from within, not some stupid ceremony that the school puts on. If you need a $30k handjob ceremony to make you feel good about being a pharmacist, then please, go kill yourself. We don’t need you going postal on everyone in 10 years when you realize that its not all candy-canes and fruit-loops like UOP pretends it is.
  Now, I’m going to give you all a little hint as to how to make the white coat ceremony seem not as retarded. I know that almost all schools (at least mine did) had a rotation program setup where you finish classes, then go off on rotations for x months working in bum-fuck Egypt for minimum wage. When you get back, you graduate, take the boards, etc. Have the stupid white coat ceremony AFTER you are done with classes but BEFORE you go off on rotations. You know, symbolizing you are finished with classes and are off to work “in the real world” (sorta). Mini-graduation to so speak. Thats a whole lot less corky than having the ceremony before the first round of midterms (which im sure some of them failed. Go cry into your white coat you failure!)
- To all of the UOP students who hate me, and think that I should not be a pharmacist:
  1. You have no idea what you are dealing with.
  2. Go have fun at your little association meetings pretending you are a “leader in pharmacy”. Remember me when you are begging for copies with your broken bok-bok engrish at the end of your 12 hour shift for Walgreens.
  3. Go actually work in a pharmacy before you shoot your mouth off about me.
  4. You are in for a rude awakening once you leave the comforting colon of UOP and get shat out into the ‘real world’ without anyone to wipe your ass or tell you how special you are.
  5. Mommy and Daddy can’t pay your way to making people not yell at you for their soma. The sooner you learn this the better. Dealing with the public (especially the sick public) sucks ass but it has to be done.
  - To all of the UOP students who think I am awesome:
    1. Join my facebook group.
    2. Obviously you have either worked with the public or have worked in a pharmacy.
    3. Spread the word of angry around campus. I need more moles ( [email protected]).
    4. Go kick the asses of those uppity bitches who dont like me. Obviously they are going to get screamed at eventually, mine as well have it be by their classmates.
    - To all the UOP students who failed out of pharmacy school after the first semester:
      1. Be sure to hang up that nice white coat. We don’t want the symbol of your failure to get dirty.
      2. Have fun wearing that coat around the house pretending to be something that you are not.
      3. Haw Haw. Now you see why I think the whole ceremony is stupid?

Comments #

Comment by Locke P Suarez on 2007-11-24 20:12:29 -0800 #

Cheers my dear comrade. Cheers. =)
Love
LPS

Comment by PharmGal on 2007-11-24 20:19:45 -0800 #

you seriously crack me up….

Comment by mrhunnnybun on 2007-11-25 03:15:50 -0800 #

I agree 100%
I did not even want to go to my graduation. A degree is just a means to an end, not an excuse for ridculous ceremonies.
Yes, I understand that we all studied hard. But, then again, there are thousands of pharmacist already and we have not done anything unique. Yes, we all passed pharmacy exams, big deal….Now just get out there and do some work…. 🙂

Comment by StringTheorist on 2007-11-25 10:50:40 -0800 #

i actually like the white coat. if thats all it takes to earn a little respect around campus next to the scrubs-wearing doctor and medical students, then so be it!

Comment by PharmGamerKid on 2007-11-25 12:28:36 -0800 #

Finals at UOP coming up the first week of December. Argh.
And yes, I totally scared of working retail because I’ve worked customer service before and I’ve come close to screaming back at the screaming customers. If I ever graduate, I’ll start another angry pharmacist blog.

Comment by e on 2007-11-25 20:06:00 -0800 #

WAIT–you got PAID MINIMUM WAGE on rotations? I paid my fabulous school 3 semesters worth of tuition…but I did get a fabulous white coat. This should be the topic of a rant!!!

Comment by Amiodarone on 2007-11-25 23:39:16 -0800 #

Good job…Gotta give you respect because you say the truth that many people can’t. I’m a clinical pharmacist and to all Pharm.D student out there, our clinical job isn’t that exciting either..Same shit everyday, yet even worse, you’re held reliable for a lot of things. The term “clinical” isn’t that fancy as it appears to be…Anything interesting at first will die down…
even doctors sometimes wanna quit and be a pharmacist like me…just can’t! it’s life…

Comment by stlcopsucks on 2007-11-26 11:25:59 -0800 #

if i can remember back to my (stlcrap) white coat ceremony (august something 2007), i think walgreens sponsored our ceremony.

Comment by Hatchet Packer on 2007-11-27 00:02:18 -0800 #

So what exactly am I dealing with? As a simple UOP student, I lack the intelligence to fully understand your greatness. Please help me to learn the extent of my stupidity.
THANKS!

Comment by Hater Of White Coat Ceremony on 2007-11-27 00:12:33 -0800 #

Oh my god TAP I agree with you completely. The White Coat Ceremony is a load of crap and i think they should get rid of it. Those dorks at UOP need to take that stick out of their ass and realize that this ceremony is pointless when they step into the real world. Because i had to spend 3 hours on a monday at this ceremony i ended up failing a couple of my midterms. My grades on them were so bad that my counselor told me I should drop out and wait another year. Well my parents arent rich like everyone else at UOP so i have to decide on a new major, im leaning towards sociology. Ugh i hate the ceremony. I agree 100% with everything you say.

Comment by UOP RETARD on 2007-11-27 08:32:56 -0800 #

“Broken bok-bok Engrish?” Nice. Your racism has all the subtlety of a Don Imus rant, but without the old age to work in your favor.
Unfortunately for you, most people who go to UOP don’t seem to fit this HURRR I’M RETARDED outfit you’ve so lovingly crafted for us. There are people who go to UOP, have worked in pharmacies before, AND think you’re an idiot. I’m not sure where they fit into your “agree with me or you’re retarded” dichotomy.
I know the point of this blog is to bitch about things. But bitching about two hours of your time (time that you would have wasted anyway) for a ceremony? And bitching about it not once, but twice?! Get. Over. It.

Comment by NotClinical…JustCynical on 2007-11-27 17:15:48 -0800 #

yes… this ceremony is such a waste of time and energy… and it takes a long time to undo the brain damage they do to the students once we get them out in the real world.

Comment by novitaminhforyou on 2007-11-27 17:30:06 -0800 #

Hater of White Coat Ceremony: If you think you failed a couple of midterms because of a 3 hour ceremony I’m afraid you’re sadly mistaken. It’s your actions during the other times that determine your grades.
That being said, I hated the White Coat Ceremony too. It was the biggest circle-jerk I’ve ever seen in my life. How about how they limit the number of guests you can bring? UOP needs to get over itself.

Comment by Kellylen on 2007-11-29 22:10:51 -0800 #

White coat is just a sad excuse for parents to go and show off how much better their kid is than everyone elses

Comment by pharmacy school scammers on 2007-12-02 17:52:23 -0800 #

I’m not even from your fucking school. However I have to agree that the idea behind pompous circumstances like graduation ceremonies is to squeeze out every last borrowed copper cent out of graduating students’ pockets. I hope the administration of campuses nationwide throwing mindless and wasteful gatherings at students’ expense get sodomized in hell forever by porcupines with long quills. It’s all about Greed with capital G for emphasis. Well over $30,000 per year for up front, just to work for fucking free in far reaching places. The ceremony is so the administration can look at you one last time as a group for paying too much for caps, gowns, and a piece of printed toilet paper so we can add more to our bottom line. Oh and by the way, thanks for paying for lunch. Being an optimist, there is some good that comes out of it, and that is the feeling that after getting that piece of shit parchment, I am no longer under their control. I just can’t wait to say FUCK YOU when I return alumni donation letters!!! Sorry to vent, but, other people in other institutions feel similarly.

Comment by mike bost on 2007-12-15 16:59:50 -0800 #

My first time on site: interesting, bold, mostly informative. As a dentist writing few rx., I can learn from this site. I haven’t visited my pharmacists for a chat: they are busy working, so I will learn from you. Ranting and raving by readers cynical beyond their age probably represents a minority. Spending a year in pharmacy school(UNC,Chapel Hill ) doesn’t make me an expert: I perceived the staff to be dedicated and serious. I just switched for various reasons. Working with the elderly takes a special skill…some can do it, some can’t. The patient benefits if we can work together: I will be more focused the next time I write a Rx.after viewing this site. Congratulations! If a patient/customer has nothing else to go on except the white coat at the first visit it helps them to form some trust. Later you can show them the real you. Mike Bost, DDS

Comment by PharmDawg on 2008-01-31 14:44:56 -0800 #

My alma mater recently started a white coat ceremony. My first reaction was disbelief because they asked the alumni to “remember fondly the time in school….” and cut a check to pay for this! It would have been nice if someone had forked out the money for a new lab coat for me to wear on rotation s because mine had been ruined inexplicably by some compounding mishap by my lab partner. However, Walgreen’s ponied up all the money, somewhat lessening my anger. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with the functionality of the lab coat; I now wear one daily as “personal protective equipment” and it has saved many of my clothes from becoming contaminated. However, never, never forget that even the photo techs at Wal-mart get to wear a white coat.

Comment by MR on 2010-03-16 11:36:34 -0700 #

Same w/me;I was on vacation right before semester #1 started but i got reamed out by some of the higher-ups. did I care? Noooo;I was w/family on vacation…

Comment by Drug Dilluh ‘12 on 2010-03-23 12:02:45 -0700 #

Fuckin’ right doggie!! I liked my white coat at first. Now it’s covered w/ stains and sits in my closet b/c some poor alumni sap paid $75 for a glorified long sleave t-shirt w/ buttons!