The white coat ceremony (WCC) is a relatively new ritual in some medical (both M.D. and D.O.), optometry, dental, chiropractic, occupational therapy, physical therapy, podiatric, pharmacy, physician assistant, and veterinary medical schools that marks the student's transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences. At some schools, where students begin meeting patients early in their education, the white coat ceremony is held before the first year begins.
WCCs typically involve a formal "robing" or "cloaking" of students in white coats, the garb physicians have traditionally worn for over 100 years and other health professions have adopted.
Read more about White Coat Ceremony: Description, History, Criticism
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“An aged man is but a paltry thing,
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“But ceremony never did conceal,
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—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)