Medical students pledge allegiance to their profession

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, December 5

Marking the beginning of their professional medical education, 100 MBBS students of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital in Faridkot donned their white coats for the first time during a ceremony on Wednesday.

Overjoyed for wearing a white coat for the first time, in the presence of their parents and teachers, these first-year medical students accepted the mantel of the medical profession at this white coat ceremony.

They recited the conventional Hippocratic Oath of the medical profession, pledging their allegiance to the profession, their compatriots, their seniors and their duty towards their patients.

“To wear this white coat means you have chosen to dedicate your lives to the needs of others,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, and the chief guest at the ceremony.

Each student was cloaked by the Vice-Chancellor. “As stewards of this medical college, we are pleased to welcome you into the medical community and to guide you toward a career of learning and caring for others,” he said.

This ceremony is to inspire these budding doctors to take a humane approach to patient-centered care.

Giving them a symbol in white coat means that their patients can trust them and these doctors-in-making have patients’ interest at their heart, said Dr Deepak John Bhatti, principal of the medical college, while administrating Hippocratic Oath to all these new entrants in the medical profession.

Though it is four long years before these students become full-fledged doctors, by donning white coat and in taking the Hippocratic Oath, they hereby promise to heal and care with entry into the profession of medicine.

The event emphasises the importance of scientific excellence and compassionate care for the patients, said Dr Lajya Goyal, Dean Academics at the medical college.

Faculty of different departments in the college introduced themselves to the students on this occasion.

This is the second white coat ceremony in the history of this medical college, started in 1973.