The School of Medicine will host White Coat Ceremonies for the Class Entered in 2020 on Sunday, Aug. 1, and for the Class Entering in 2021 on Sunday, Aug. 15.
Both ceremonies will begin at 2 p.m. at the BJCC Concert Hall and will also be streamed live online at www.uab.edu/whitecoat.
This year two ceremonies are being held so the second-year students, who entered medical school during the COVID-19 pandemic, will have a traditional white coat ceremony experience.
Each of the new members of the entering classes of 2020 and 2021 will be cloaked with their white coat by leaders across the School of Medicine, in the presence of family, friends, faculty and staff. The white coat symbolizes professional competence and human compassion in the practice of medicine.
For the class entering in 2021, the ceremony on Aug. 15 follows the completion of their first class, Patient, Doctor and Society, which focuses on the role physicians play in society and emphasizes professionalism, compassion, responsibility, ethics and the doctor/patient relationship. At the ceremony, these students will take an oath of dedication they wrote themselves during their first class.
Across the country, the ceremonial presentation of white coats to medical students is a common medical school tradition. The ceremony and oath of commitment to patient care remind incoming students of the dedication necessary to complete a medical education and underscore the responsibilities inherent in the practice of medicine.
The white coats are provided to the incoming students by the University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association. Each student also will receive a lapel pin that emphasizes humanism in medicine as a gift from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.