First-year medical students will receive the mantle of the profession and recite the Hippocratic Oath at this year’s White Coat Ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 23 at the University of Manitoba’s Bannatyne Campus.

The 110 students of the Class of 2021 will be formally cloaked in their first white coats as part of Inaugural Exercises at the Max Rady College of Medicine in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“Putting on the white coat of a physician for the first time marks a major milestone for our students and their families,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the Max Rady College of Medicine, dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and vice-provost (health sciences).

“With this ceremony, we welcome students as they dedicate themselves to becoming compassionate health-care professionals. When they recite the traditional oath, they are pledging to conduct themselves ethically, to put patients first, and to treat every patient with dignity and respect. That’s the foundation for everything they will go on to learn.”

This year, 105 of the 110 incoming students (95 per cent) are Manitoban. The class of 61 women and 49 men includes 11 students of self-declared Indigenous ancestry. Thirty-six students (one-third) have rural attributes, meaning that they have rural roots, rural work experience or rural volunteer or leadership experience.

The class’s ethnic and socio-economic diversity reflects the Max Rady College of Medicine’s inclusive admissions policy. To remove barriers to participation and better reflect Manitoba’s diversity, the college dedicates some places in the class to qualified candidates from traditionally under-represented backgrounds.