Indiana University School of Medicine students from each of the state’s nine campuses marked a significant turning point on Monday, April 15, donning the iconic garments of a physician for the first time at the 2024 White Coat Ceremony.
Over 300 Class of 2026 students assembled at the Old National Centre in Indianapolis, joined by family and friends to mark the occasion — an occasion some want to see discarded.
“There are people who would like to see the White Coat Ceremony go away,” IU School of Medicine Dean Jay L. Hess, MD, PhD, MHSA, said. “They see the white coat as a symbol of elitism, a barrier between doctors and patients… But this shouldn’t be. It’s not the coat: it’s the way you wear it.”
Paul Wallach, MD, executive associate dean of educational affairs at IU School of Medicine, reiterated this, saying the white coat — “a mantle of our profession” — represents something very different from elitism: a constant reminder of the duty of care and service to their patients.
“It represents knowledge, skill, duty, and professionalism,” he said. “It reminds us of the importance of compassion and caring in the practice of medicine and the responsibility to our patients.”
The White Coat Ceremony occurs during the transition between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of medical school and marks the beginning of their clinical clerkship period.
As the students moved from the abstract world of lectures into the tangible world of real-world patient interaction in their clerkships, Hess laid out what they could expect as they joined “the front lines of medicine,” experiencing joys and sorrows alongside patients and their families.
“At one point, you may be helping to bring a new life into the world; at another, you’ll be
alongside a person taking their final breath,” he said. “The White Coat Ceremony marks this remarkable transition into the complex world of medicine.”
As the ceremony concluded, the Class of 2026 stood with the other physicians in attendance and recited the Physician’s Oath, officially marking their transition into a new phase of their medical journey.
