Media advisory: New medical residents -- including 45 UB graduates -- to get their white coats

BUFFALO, N.Y. – One hundred and eighty-five newly minted MDs will mark a critical milestone in their professional lives on Tuesday, June 21, when they become medical residents at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

This year’s class of residents includes 45 graduates of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, nearly a third of the medical school’s 2016 graduating class, a sign that the residency program is increasingly attractive to UB medical school graduates. In 2015 and 2014, a UB residency program was the choice of 30 and 28 UB graduates, respectively.

The second annual white coat ceremony for medical residents will be held at 3:15 p.m. in the Center for Tomorrow on the UB North Campus and will take about 25 minutes. Afterward, all 185 medical residents will gather outside for a group photo.

On-site media contact: Susan Orrange, PhD, assistant dean for education and resident services, at 716-418-5403.

“The long white coat symbolizes the trust patients place in their physicians and the responsibility to act professionally while serving patients and the public,” said Roseanne Berger, MD, senior associate dean for graduate medical education in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and associate professor of family medicine.

“This year, we permitted residents to ask a close family member to attend the white coat ceremony,” explained Susan Major Orrange, PhD, assistant dean for education and resident services in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “We want to better educate those closest to the residents about what medical residency entails, both professionally and personally, in order to better support them.”

After graduation from medical school, medical residents are “matched” with a residency program where they train in a medical or surgical specialty from three to seven years. The 185 residents who take part in Tuesday’s ceremony chose to start their careers as physicians at UB and Buffalo. They will provide patient care under supervision of UB faculty in hospitals and clinics.

To celebrate the transition, UB’s newest medical residents will don the long white coats that indicate they have graduated from medical school. When students enter medical school, they receive short white coats at a ceremony, which serves as a bonding experience with the profession.   

In addition to receiving their long white coats at Tuesday’s ceremony, medical residents also will recite the Hippocratic Oath and the UB Resident Code of Conduct. The ceremony occurs on Education Day, during which residents receive information on topics ranging from health issues in Buffalo’s population and communication and cultural issues to patient privacy, quality improvement and safety.

It’s part of UB’s five-day medical resident orientation which includes background on UB, the Western New York community, its population and its health care systems. During orientation, residents visit several UB-affiliated teaching hospitals, interact with program faculty and, in some cases, work with UB’s Clinical Competency Center to assess interactions with actors playing patients. Before arriving on campus, residents completed online tutorials, including modules on addiction, pain medicine and safe prescribing practices.    

The event was planned in collaboration with UB’s Richard Sarkin/Emeritus Faculty Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, which launched the tradition of holding white coat ceremonies in the 1990s to symbolize that humanism remains at the core of all medical care. UB is one of only 15 medical residency programs in the U.S. that is home to a residency chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.