White Coat Ceremony
→ WATCH THE FULL CEREMONY VIDEO ON DEMAND ON UNITO MEDIA ←
The degree course in Medicine and Surgery has celebrated the second edition of its White Coat Ceremony, which has taken place on Saturday March 2nd, 2024 at the Teaching Center of the San Luigi Gonzaga hospital. Third-year students have received their first white coat, which marks their transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences.
The White Coat Ceremony is indeed a rite of passage for medical students. During the ceremony, a white coat is placed on each student’s shoulders and the Hippocratic Oath is recited, signifying their entrance into the medical profession. The White Coat Ceremony is intended to strengthen the sense of belonging and responsibility towards the activity of the medical students involved, around which the academic community gathers, to encourage them to continue their journey with commitment and motivation.
The first White Coat Ceremony led by the Gold Foundation took place in 1993 at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, where Dr. Arnold Gold was a Professor of Clinical Neurology and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics. He noted that the existing practice of having students take the Hippocratic Oath at the end of their medical training occurred four years too late.
The Gold Foundation instituted the White Coat Ceremony as a way to emphasize humanism in Medicine at the very start of their medical clerkship experience. The white coat symbolizes one of the most important parts of students' medical education, a standard of professionalism and caring, a material symbol of the promise that its wearer has made to each and every patient whom he or she encounters: the promise to heal and to care.
In just a few years, the ceremony was adopted by nearly every medical school in North America, and in a short time all over the world. From this year on, the degree course in Medicine and Surgery is proud of being counted among one of the many universities that celebrate this event.
Watch the highlights of the first edition of our White Coat Ceremony!