Columbia University College Of Physicians & Surgeons Celebrates 10th White Coat Ceremony
Milestone welcomes first-year medical students, instills humanistic values in medical practice
August 16, 2002, New York, NY – On Friday, Aug. 23, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S) will welcome the Class of 2006 at its 10th Arnold P. Gold Foundation White Coat Ceremony, an annual rite of passage for doctors-to-be to pledge a commitment to the compassionate practice of medicine. This event was initiated at Columbia P&S in 1993 and has since become tradition at more than 130 schools of medicine and osteopathy throughout the US, at Israel’s four medical schools, and in other countries.
Supported by The Arnold P. Gold Foundation, a public foundation dedicated to creating innovative medical educational programs that foster humanism in medicine, the White Coat Ceremony is an opportunity for first-year medical students to publicly declare their intention to practice medicine “in uprightness and honor” by reciting the Hippocratic oath before family, friends, and faculty. Though this recitation was previously reserved until students graduated from medical school, the promise to uphold its tenets at the beginning of medical school helps students start thinking and feeling like a doctor from day one, as each is individually cloaked in a white clinician’s coat.
“The White Coat Ceremony has become an indelible experience for P&S students,” said Dr. Gerald D. Fischbach, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and executive vice president for Health and Biomedical Sciences. “It builds a positive foundation for students and challenges them to provide compassionate care and seek excellence in science.”
Dr. Arnold P. Gold, professor of clinical neurology and clinical pediatrics at Columbia P&S, adds that the White Coat Ceremony encourages a “psychological contract” for professionalism in medicine.
“This ceremony demonstrates the medical and educational communities’ commitment to professionalism and caring in medicine,” Dr. Gold said. “Students promise to practice medicine honorably and continue the tradition of 'doctoring' and mentoring, as they recite the Hippocratic Oath and are cloaked by faculty and administrators. This represents a gift of faith and confidence to a new generation of physicians embarking on their professional journey.”
The internationally renowned Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins University, will return to Columbia to present the keynote address, as he did at the first White Coat Ceremony in 1993. The ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Alumni Auditorium of the Black Building at 650 West 168th Street.
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