Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Synapsis Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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CONGRATULATIONS, CLASS OF 1977!! Thank you for the privilege of extending to your fine class my congratulations and greetings on behalf of the Faculty and Educational Administration. You have come a long way in the past four years. We have seen you mature from anxious applicants for ad- mission to PCOM to most promising osteopathic physicians. You are to be commended since you are a very select group admitted from a tremendous pool of applicants. You have proved the confidence of the Admissions Committee in successfully completing a most rigorous program of osteopathic medical educa- tion, and demonstrating your ability and earning the privilege and right to be called OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIAN. PCOM has also grown and matured with you. Your class is the largest class in the history of the College. The whole time faculty has been quadrupled; the part time faculty has been doubled. You were the first class to enjoy and profit by the new facilities at Evans Hall. You were among the first participants in a program of clinical training which is becoming a model utilized by some of the other osteopathic colleges. As has been true of most all PCOM graduates through the years, you will probably appreciate your osteopathic educa- tion most after about five years in practice, as one employs the abundance of knowledge mastered in the predoctoral days. You are the class that will initiate one hundred more classes of PCOM physicians, and will be leaders during the third century of our Nation ' s history. I would advise you to keep well informed. Become lead- ers in the profession and the community. Be innova- tive, and be determined to help shape your own future destinies. Become involved. Remember, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is always here to guide you and to be of as- sistance. You, as alumni and colleagues (as of June), are accorded an invitation to visit us frequently. At- tend the Continuing Medical Education programs we offer the profession. You will be requesting letters from the Dean and others at the College, especially during the next few years; but also in the future, so keep in touch. We value your comments. Your evalua- tion of your education and your comments about fu- ture graduates as you participate in the near future in preceptorships, staff of affiliated hospitals, and other avenues of education will prove invaluable to us as we assess achievement of goals and objectives, and as continuing evaluation is carried out. We would hope that some of you will be interested in joining the Col- lege Faculty, and that many will become hospital staff members. Be proud of being an osteopathic physician. Do your part in making the osteopathic profession a great one. You chose it for a career. We felt you had great poten- tial. Your commencement is a positive indication of the confidence the College has in you as well-founded, and a positive indication of your achievement as an osteopathic physician. Be proud of your College. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is the largest osteopathic college and the ninth largest of all colleges of medicine (both schools of the healing arts). Be loyal to your College and your profession. They will provide you many op- portunities of health care and other service to the community and carry a respect we challenge you to merit in the quality care of patients. We are proud of our graduates. You are PCOM along with the Faculty, Administration, and Staff. Remember the dedication of many who made your education possible. We are ever thankful for those dedicated to osteopathic education, with altruistic motivation, love of students, committed to a profession, who help make it all possible. Support your college, and fulfill your obligations to future gen- erations of students. I have enjoyed this class, and have been delighted to have been your Dean. You are a class of individualists. I happen to respect and appreciate that. I am con- vinced that many of your classmates will be leaders in our profession and in their communities, and that some will be with us on faculty before long. It has been a privilege to work with you. Do not hesitate to call us for assistance in the future. PCOM and the De- an ' s Office is here to serve you. On behalf of the Faculty, all the members of the Ed- ucational Administration, and our PCOM team, may I extend hearty best wishes to each one. May God bless you. Sincerely, Robert W. England, D.O. Dean

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m-m r rr P.C.O.M. then . . . . . . and now.

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I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Hygeia, and Panacea, and all the gods, and goddesses that according to my ability and judgment. I will keep this oath and this stipulation — to reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers and to teach them this art if they shall wish to learn it. Without fee or stipulation and that by precept lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath (According to the law of medicine but to none others, I will follow the system of regiment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider For the benefit of my patients and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked nor suggest any such counsel, and in like manner I will not give to a vjoman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever in connection with my professional practice or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art respected by all men in all times! But should I trespass and violate this oath, may the reverse be my lot! f TH: