In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the graduating charter class for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, we are sharing this story that looks back at the medical school’s white coat ceremonies.
White coat ceremonies are a rite of passage for incoming medical students, marking a key moment when they are entering the profession of medicine and promising to always put their patients first. Medical schools across the country hold these ceremonies as students enter their first semester.
The first white coat ceremony was created by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation in 1993, and was held at Columbia University. Noted on the Gold Foundation website:
"The first White Coat Ceremony led by the Gold Foundation took place in 1993 at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, where Dr. Arnold Gold was a Professor of Clinical Neurology and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics. He noted that the existing practice of having students take the Hippocratic Oath at the end of their medical training occurred four years too late."
For the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, these ceremonies have varied over the years and, collectively, provide a timeline for the advances in the caliber of students entering USF Health MCOM. Nearly every year, the class size increased, the MCAT scores improved and GPAs grew higher.
As class sizes grew and more friends and family attended ceremonies, the events made their way around the Tampa area to accommodate, starting in the on-site former USF Health Auditorium, then on to the new ballroom in the USF Marshall Student Center, then to downtown for a short stint in the historic Tampa Theatre, then into the convention center. This year’s event is being held Friday Sept 6 in the Hilton Tampa Downtown and will be livestreamed.
Here's a look at some stories from past USF Health MCOM white coat ceremonies:
Following the national trend to hold white coat ceremonies for first-year medical students, with the first being in 1993 at Columbia University, USF’s medical school hosted its first ceremony in 1997:
In 2001, USF President Judy Genshaft attended the ceremony it the USF Health Auditorium:
In 2008, one of the last years the event was held in the USF Health Auditorium: Visit here for that story:
Family and friends always filled the audiences, and their numbers also grew each year. Some years, the ceremony was held in the Marshall Student Center, but even that ballroom proved tight at the MD class grew. In 2012, coverage captured the intention to provide room for everyone:
"...Never before had 1,000 chairs been squeezed into a room to accommodate all who came to celebrate the entry of the University of South Florida’s incoming medical students into the profession of medicine…”
The ceremony in 2014 was Dr. Charles Lockwood’s first as dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine:
"...Then, Dr. Lockwood turned to address the students, the first MCOM class to enter since he joined USF Health...“Wearing this white coat confers great authority, but also great responsibility… Patients will turn to you in trust, and trust is the first step needed for a doctor to help heal a patient. Their needs must be at the center of all you do." ”
Visit here for that story from 2014.
From the 2015 ceremony:
The ceremony also included a tradition of Dr. Greg Nicolosi playing a bagpipe as he leads in first-year medical students at the start of the ceremony. Here's a photo of Dr. Nicolosi with students and faculty in 2015:
Visit here for that story from 2015.
In 2016, the ceremony was held at the historic Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa.
"Filing into the historical Tampa Theatre in downtown Tampa, 183 new University of South Florida medical students smiled at family and friends as they walked on to fill the front rows of red plush seats. This year’s White Coat Ceremony, held Aug. 18, marked the beginning of the Class of 2020 for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM)."
Visit here for that story from 2016.
Then the event moved to the Tampa Bay Convention Center. The 2017 ceremony was one of the first held there and featured City of Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
