BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN recognition of having successfully completed their Basic Sciences programme at the Windsor University School of Medicine, about 90 students Saturday evening (April. 13) took part in a usual White Coat Graduation Ceremony held at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.
Following, the ceremony, a dinner was held at Copper Chimney - which is located in Frigate Bay in proximity of the Marriott Hotel.
Faculty members, parents and other well-wishers were among those in attendance.
At the dinner, awards - organised by the Student Body – that were distributed included Best Students, Class Clown and Best Smiles.
Songs and a skit were performed during at the event.
In an interview with the Academic Dean, Drijinder Kgupta, at the dinner, he outlined the significance of the White Coat event.
“Once the students finish their Basic Sciences in St. Kitts, then we have a White Coat Ceremony which is the beginning of their clinic (assessment) programme and then they go for clinical rotations in different parts of the hospital. Mostly, students go to US. There we have the agreement for the clinical rotations, and some of the students who don’t have the visa to go to US…they do it here in JNF Hospital.”
He explained that such a ceremony takes place thrice yearly and that the Basic Science Course takes four months to complete.
“Every four months because we have admission in January, May and September. So, generally, they finish in April, August and December...so it is three times a year.”
Kgupta stated that two types of dinners are held.
“We have two types of dinners. First when the students come on the first day of the school, we have in that week a welcome dinner for everyone. And this is a farewell dinner where the parents also come (as) we invite them to join them.”
Asked what advice he wished to impart to the students, the Dean said, “I have been advising always for the students to work hard, because they have chosen a profession, the medical profession. This is a noble profession...they have to serve. It’s a service! If they want to make money they have to have the knowledge and serve the community also.
“That is a main advice to them...wok hard so that they can achieve their goals in life”, he added.
This media house also questioned which gender is more attracted to the profession, to which Kgupta said, “In this system, I should say we have 50-50 percent male and female.”
This media house also spoke with Vice President of the Student Body, Sushil Singla, who talked about the academic aspect of the Basic Science Course.
“Basically, the way it works is that you finish your undergraduate in any Science...be it Biological Science or some other Sciences. Once you’ve done your basic studies, you come out to Windsor here in St. Kitts. Basically, what you do and learn here in semesters are Basic Medical Sciences. So those are your anatomy and your physiology, biochemistry…understanding the basics of the human body and then understanding the basics of disease and how that affects our human bodies.”
He went on point out the next step is hospital training.
“And basically, you get prepared to go into the real world. Generally, the next step is United States or Canada or other countries, Nigeria as well, where you step foot into that hospital with that basic knowledge and you learn from student teachers, professors and teaching doctors as well.”
Singla touched on why the White Coat ceremony takes place.
“So the big step and the reason why we have graduation is because the real hard core theoretical understanding how to learn to become a doctor happens here on the island. So it’s like people always say, ‘You never learn to become a doctor, you never finish learning to become a doctor, you just learn how to learn.’ And that’s what happens here on the island.”
He praised the academic standards and the beauty of their learning environment on St. Kitts.
“It’s a great programme, a great place to be. We’re in the most beautiful place we could ask for and, on top of that, we get the best education we could ask for. So we’re really happy. This is a stepping stone to get into the real world, so we’re really happy about being here.”
Following the dinner an after party was held at Buddies on the Frigate Bay Strip.
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