The School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will hold this year’s White Coat Ceremony for first-year medical students at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 14 in the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. South.
Each of the 187 members of the Class of 2015 will be presented with the traditional white coat in the presence of family, friends, faculty and staff. The white coat is a powerful symbol of both professional competence and human compassion.
The ceremony follows the completion of the new student’s first class, Patient, Doctor, Society. That class focuses on the role that physicians play in our society, with emphasis on professionalism, compassion, responsibility, ethics and the doctor/patient relationship. Students will take an oath of dedication at the ceremony written by the students themselves during the course of the first class.
The ceremonial presentation of white coats to medical students is a common practice at medical schools throughout the nation. 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; it is a gift from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.