Media Advisory: At long white coat ceremony, UB medical school welcomes 190 new physicians to Western New York

BUFFALO, N.Y. — One hundred and ninety newly minted MDs will mark a critical milestone in their professional lives at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 27, at the Center for Tomorrow on the University at Buffalo North Campus. That’s when they become medical residents of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

Afterward, all medical residents will gather outside for a group photo. A reception will follow.

This year’s class of residents of 81 women and 109 men includes 120 U.S. citizens and 70 citizens of at least 17 other countries, including 24 from Canada, 9 from Pakistan and six from India.

Forty of the new residents are UB graduates, 32 of whom graduated from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and eight of whom graduated from the School of Dental Medicine.

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 residents who take part in Tuesday’s ceremony chose to start their careers as physicians in Buffalo at UB. They will provide patient care under supervision of UB medical school faculty in Western New York’s hospitals and clinics.

“The long white coat is not only a symbol of the profession but it also 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.

To celebrate the transition, UB’s newest medical residents will don the long white coats that indicate they have graduated from medical school, leaving behind the short white coats they received when they entered medical school.   

At the ceremony, medical residents 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. There also is a focus on resident well-being, highlighting institutional support resources and advice from current residents.

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 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 14 medical residency programs in the U.S. that is home to a residency chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.