With white coats and stethoscopes, students begin their medical journeys
When medical students first put on their white coats, they’re doing more than marking the start of medical school—they’re beginning the rest of their careers.
On Sunday, July 12, first-year medical students at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine celebrated that milestone with family and friends at the school’s White Coat Ceremony, where the act of donning the white coat for the first time symbolizes their promise to uphold the highest standards of ethical and compassionate patient care throughout the entirety of their careers.
This year’s class brings together students from a wide range of geographic regions, educational backgrounds and life experiences to study in one of the three MD training programs offered at CWRU—172 students in the University Program, 32 in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and 12 in the MD-PhD Medical Scientist Training Program.
Dean Stan Gerson, MD, reflected on the power of the white coat, stating, “It is not simply an article of clothing. It is not a costume. The white coat tells the world that you are now a physician in training. It places you in a profession where people will trust you—with their health, their fears, their families and some of the most difficult days of their lives.”
The ceremony also featured alum Ava Shamban, MD (MED ’82), as the keynote speaker. A renowned aesthetic procedural dermatologist with practices in California who appeared on ABC’s Extreme Makeover in the early 2000s, Shamban spoke to the new students about the calling of medicine, the importance of healing and the lasting value of an education from Case Western Reserve.
The celebration of entering medical school began even before the White Coat Ceremony. Students spent the week at orientation, and partook in another meaningful tradition that further solidified their promise to provide ethical care: working together to craft and recite their own version of the Hippocratic Oath. By bringing their personal perspectives and experiences to this historic pledge, students laid out the unique values that will guide them as future physicians.
The incoming class also received their first stethoscopes during a separate ceremony on Friday that highlighted the instrument’s deeper meaning as a symbol of listening, trust and connection between physician and patient. The Jason Madachy Foundation generously provided matching funds for the stethoscopes in honor of its namesake, who died suddenly in 2007, just two months before he was set to begin medical school.
Each stethoscope was carefully engraved with an important message: “Excel in leaving a mark.” As each new student begins the next four years—and the lifetime of medicine that follows—they will do just that.
