On January 10, 2024, the UVM Master of Science in Dietetics (MSD) Class of 2025 celebrated an inaugural Dietetics White Coat ceremony. Joining several other national dietetics programs in this tradition, the 2025 MSD class donned their white coats, accepting the responsibilities of being a health professional as they begin their year-long dietetic internships.
The ceremony included an oath and celebration of students becoming health ambassadors, nutrition advocates, and role models for wellness, weight inclusivity, and health equity.
Beginning on January 15, 2024, the students will spend their days in hospitals, kitchens, government buildings, farms, and K-12 classrooms, and gain hands-on training with community partner Preceptors. The training will help them meet the unique needs and challenges of individuals, families, communities, and food systems and, by doing so, work toward positively influencing patients’ relationships with food, their bodies, and the interconnectedness these relationships have with the planet.
The UVM MSD White Coat Oath
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgement, this covenant:
- I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those registered dietitian nutritionists in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such evidence-based knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
- I will remember that there is art to nutrition and dietetics as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh meal plans, the surgeon’s knife, or the chemist’s drug.
- I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
- I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings.
- I promise to bear witness to historical injustices that continue to unfold for marginalized communities, I have a shared responsibility to address global health disparities. I must have the courage to act in addressing health equity.
- I vow to uphold the University of Vermont’s Our Common Ground as well as the Academy’s Code of Ethics.