The White Coat Ceremony
This annual celebration set in Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra) serves as the formal kick-off of the academic year. New medical students, cheered by family and friends, receive their white coats - the symbol of the medical profession. The event in the concert hall features a theme of humanism in medicine, and the white coat symbolizes the compassion and responsibility that come with working in the profession of medicine.
The White Coat rite caps several days of orientation activities, including an oath-writing exercise. The students gather for lunch with leaders of the School of Medicine before breaking into small groups to discuss the ethical and other considerations that should guide their thinking and behavior during medical school. Representatives from all of the small groups gather again the next day to finalize a new code of professionalism, which is recited at the White Coat Ceremony in place of the Hippocratic Oath written for practicing physicians.
The Ceremony concludes with a celebratory reception in the main foyer for the future physicians and their proud families.
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