August 12, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - 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. 16 in the Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. South.

Each of the 176 members of the Class of 2013 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.

In previous years, the White Coat Ceremony marked the beginning of the medical school experience. Reflecting an overall curriculum change at UAB that began two years ago, the ceremony now 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 featured address will be delivered by Ronald Braswell, M.D., UAB associate professor of ophthalmology and winner of the 2009 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, as chosen by the Class of 2009.

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.

Each student also will receive a lapel pin that emphasizes humanism in medicine; it is a gift from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

About the UAB School of Medicine

Located at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of the South's premier research universities, the School of Medicine is dedicated to the education of physicians and scientists in all of the disciplines of medicine and biomedical investigation.