Congratulations on your upcoming White Coat Ceremony! Each year, the Gold Foundation provides a kit of materials for your school’s ceremony, including example ceremony ideas, downloadable templates, and more.
Visit Planning a White Coat Ceremony for ideas and guidance on the coating procedure, logistics, and other tips to make your event a success.
For the nursing ceremony toolkit, click here.
Every ceremony is unique, as each school adds their own special sense of place, history, and culture. Yet there are consistent elements. The list below features the elements essential to the White Coat Ceremony, which is, at its core, a ritual that emphasizes the importance of humanism in healthcare from the beginning of the clinician’s journey.
Oath to humanistic patient care: The central component of any White Coat Ceremony is the oath signifying the commitment to patients, which students read or recite together. Schools select an oath based on their own tradition. Many oaths are created by the students or faculty, and it is typically the same oath recited at commencement.
Early in training: It is important to hold this ritual at the start of medical education, in order to demonstrate the significance of humanism early in training and professional identity formation.
Focus on humanism: The emphasis on humanistic patient care can be delivered through a keynote address and/or highlighted in remarks from medical school leadership. Schools may also ask students to reflect on compassionate, collaborative, and scientifically excellent care through writing, discussions, or other initiatives.
Pins: The Gold Foundation offers white “Keeping Healthcare Human” lapel pins to be worn on the white coats and given to each medical student at the ceremony. The gold Möbius loop on the pin represents the critical bond between clinician and patient that is at the heart of compassionate care. Thanks to our supporters, we provide these pins without cost to medical schools. School administrators can request pins using our online form at least 30 days in advance of the ceremony date.
Please remember to acknowledge The Arnold P. Gold Foundation for the pins in your ceremony program, and we encourage you to include a brief statement about the background and significance of this ritual in your ceremony program.
Medical schools from around the country shared ideas for how they incorporate humanism into their ceremony.
Connect with your school’s GHHS chapter to further emphasize compassionate patient care into your ceremony, by involving them directly in the planning and execution. These ideas were shared by medical schools from around the country:
Visit Planning a White Coat Ceremony for ideas and guidance on the coating procedure, logistics, and other tips to make your event a success.
Visit White Coat Ceremonies during COVID-19 for a webinar about hosting a virtual or hybrid ceremony offered in partnership with Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Program template (Publisher) (InDesign) – add your school’s logo, ceremony speakers, students, and other details, and print at the printing shop of your choice, or save as a PDF to distribute via email or on your website. If you prefer a different file format, please email msloane@gold-foundation.org.
White Coat Ceremony Slides (PPT) – incorporate these slides into your ceremony using this template, which can be edited to reflect your school name, logo, student photos and names. It also includes a link to a video about the legacy of Arnold P. Gold.
The 2.5-foot by 8-foot banner can be modified to include your school’s logo and then ordered from VistaPrint or the printing shop of your choice.
2.5-foot x 8-foot “Congratulations on your White Coat Ceremony” banner (InDesign or PDF) – add your school’s logo and print at the printing shop of your choice. If you don’t wish to edit the banner, you may also download a PDF with the message and Gold Foundation logo.
Gold Foundation White Coat Ceremony logo (PNG) – for inclusion on your own specially designed program or banner.
Font: Source Sans Pro (free download) – this open source typeface family is often used in our materials.
5 marketing tips (PDF) – ideas to promote your ceremony widely and engage with the Gold Foundation through social media.
Press release template for schools (Word). These templates include a quote from Gold Foundation President and CEO Dr. Kathleen Reeves and can be modified for your school and sent to local media outlets, such as local TV stations and newspapers.
