Ceremony Imposition of the White Coat to Medical Students: A Contemporary Symbolic Act
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Introduction: The curriculum of the medical school at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali wanted to be innovative. In that sense, one of the proposals was to return and implement different initiatives in what might be called a “program of professionalism” of medical students and seeks to promote ethical, moral, humanistic and altruistic students. The ceremony of the white coat, is part of this program and is one of the symbolic acts that wanted to be incorporate.
Objective: To review the history of the ceremony of white coat in contrast to the meaning given to it in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali.
Materials and Methods: We conducted a systematic review in bibliographic databases such as PubMed, ScienceDirect, Hinari, SciELO and Google Schoolar using the terms white coat ceremony to discuss the experiences reported in the literature comparing to the ceremony at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali.
Results: Since the white coat is a widely recognized symbol of the medical profession for humanity, its ceremony constitutes an act that encourages students of Medicine towards meeting the same obligations of physicians from the process of formation.
Conclusion: The ceremony of white coat becomes a symbolic act of transition for medical students finishing the fundamental cycle and going thru a professional one; and in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, aims to exalt essential human values of medicine.
bata, educación médica, estudiantes de medicina, Coat, medical education, medical students,
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