The White Coat Ceremony marks a transformation for first-year students entering medical school. Professional attitudes and ethical behavior are critical attributes of physicians-in-training. The short white coats worn by medical students elicit the high expectations patients have of the doctor/patient relationship. In the presence of family and faculty members, students are welcomed in to the medical community by leaders of the medical center and listen to inspiring addresses by speakers at the event.

As a demonstration of commitment to the tenets of honor, respect, and integrity, students will sign the Indiana University School of Medicine Honor Code. Then they are ceremonially "cloaked" with a white coat and dressed in white, they stand to take the ancient Oath of Hippocrates, traditionally sworn at graduation.

By establishing this meaningful ritual at the beginning of medical school, we hope students will become aware of their responsibilities from the first day of training. The ceremony is intended to impress upon the students the primacy of the doctor-patient relationship. It encourages students to accept the obligations inherent in the practice of medicine: to be excellent in science, to be compassionate, and to maintain the honor and dignity of the profession. It is designed to clarify that a physician's responsibility is to take care of patients and also to care for patients. The message transmitted is that doctors should care as well as cure.