Credit: Nick Romanenko

Entering students of the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy participate in a "white coat ceremony" on September 10. The tradition, similar to that of medical schools, has existed at Rutgers since 2000.

Dean Christopher J. Molloy, in presiding over his first White Coat Ceremony for students at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, told the 220 students that in a few years they will be on the front line of a national health care crisis.

“You will be in the position where people’s lives will be in your hands,’’ Molloy told about 220 students gathered for the event earlier this month. “The white coat is a symbol of this responsibility, of your professional commitment to helping the community.”

The ceremony, which presents all first-year professional pharmacy students with a white lab coat embroidered with their name, is similar to the one given to medical students and other health professionals. The pharmacy custom was begun in 1995 at the University of Kentucky, and has been performed at Rutgers since 2000. Molloy was appointed dean in October 2007, which was too late for last year’s ceremony.

Molloy’s new position marks his return to Rutgers where, in 1977, he received a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy. In 1987, he earned a joint doctoral degree in toxicology from Rutgers' Graduate School and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers Medical School (now UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School). Subsequently, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Since Molloy’s undergraduate days at Rutgers, the role of pharmacists has undergone a dramatic transformation. During the 1970s, the curriculum placed a much greater emphasis on analytical chemistry, drug compounding, and the proper dispensing of prescriptions.

“Today the pharmacist is trained to be the clinical medication expert charged with the important role of helping to optimize health care outcomes,’’ Molloy said. Pharmacists play a more proactive role as key members of the health care team, he said, and are charged with coordinating a patient’s drug therapy, informing patients of drug interactions and side effects, and helping patients manage prescription costs.

Molloy said that he wanted to impress on the first-year professional students the responsibilities they were undertaking. “If you are deciding what dose of a powerful drug to give a newborn, for example, you have to have that knowledge – it’s not something that can just be guessed at,’’ Molloy said.

On September 10, after each pharmacy student was called to the stage to receive a neatly folded coat, the class, on a signal from 2012 class president Esther Lee, rose and donned their coats as one.

As first-year pharmacy student Navaneeth Narayanan buttoned his white coat, he said that the ceremony brought home the responsibility of his profession.

“As Dean Molloy and other speakers pointed out, we will be in the position of holding people’s lives in our hands, helping people in the community who might not necessarily have access to full medical care,” Narayanan, 20, of Franklin, said. “It is a big responsibility to accept.”

Narayanan already has gained experience with the Operation Smile program, which provides medical care and operations for children internationally, and hopes to continue that kind of community work with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Along with receiving their white coats, the students also recited a pledge, which emphasized honest, trustworthy, and ethical behavior. Students pledged to respect the autonomy and dignity of each and every individual, and to respect the personal, cultural, and religious differences of their patients.

Sarah Tomasello, a clinical associate professor in pharmacy practice and administration, who also serves on the Rutgers’ Academic Integrity Committee, emphasized that the white coat was a symbol of honesty and integrity. She said students had to be mindful that their behavior is ethical both in and out of class, and that any personal shortcomings in this regard would reflect on their future profession.

“If you are caught cheating, then you will be cheating your profession,’’ Tomasello said.

All too often there are horror stories concerning those in the medical profession shirking their professional responsibilities, Lee noted in her address. As one example, she cited the now-notorious instance of the woman left lying on the floor of a medical waiting room for four hours while personnel there ignored her. She later died.

“She was a victim of those who should have been helping her,” Lee said. “In this profession, we have to be people of integrity. We have to expect to be held to a higher standard of integrity and responsibility.”

The class also heard a keynote address by Dalal Nesheiwat, Class of 2008, who is serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Novartis. CVS Caremark Corporation sponsored the reception for the class, which took place at the Busch Campus Center in Piscataway.