White coats transform a person into the embodiment of medical science, pure and superior in knowledge and treatments and embody a psychological, intellectual, and ethical contract for the profession and promote empathy in the practice of medicine. For a century, the white coat has been the symbol of the medical doctor. Today, several medical schools in India begin with a white coat ceremony.
The young, future doctors stand together and recite a revised version of the Hippocratic Oath before being called up one-by-one to receive the white coats that they will wear throughout the upcoming trials and adventures of medical training. The practice of wearing white coats are thought to have been adopted in a conscious effort to mimic lab coats and create the image of doctors as people of science and to pursue the concept of sterility in medical care that was becoming important at that time.…
