Media Advisory: Jacobs School to hold first white coat ceremony for medical residents downtown

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo will hold the first white coat ceremony for medical residents in the Jacobs School’s new downtown building, 955 Main St., Buffalo, today, June 26, at 3 p.m.

Rose Berkun, MD, medical alumni association president, will address the new residents, followed by the ceremony, where the residents receive their long white coats to replace the short white coats they received when they entered medical school.   

The ceremony takes place in the M&T Auditorium, Room 2120, on the second floor. The residents will then gather in the atrium outside the auditorium for a group photo. A reception will follow.

Media are invited to attend.

This year’s class of 251 new residents and fellows at UB includes 104 women and 147 men from the U.S. and around the world, including Canada, India, Pakistan, China and the United Kingdom. Thirty-two of them are graduates of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

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 at UB, providing patient care under the supervision of Jacobs School faculty in Western New York’s hospitals and clinics.

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, led by Roseanne Berger, MD, senior vice president for graduate medical education and associate professor of family medicine in the Jacobs School. Berger and other medical school faculty provide information to the residents including 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.

Organized by Susan Orrange, assistant dean for resident and education services, 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.