Students' transition to work with patients celebrated during the White Coat Ceremony

On 12 October 2023, the traditional White Coat Ceremony for 3rd year students at the Faculty of Dentistry took place in the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Great Hall. This ceremony symbolises the students' transition from pre-clinical work with mannequins to clinical work with patients. The White Coat Ceremony has become a tradition at RSU.

At the event, both local and international students took a solemn pledge committing to carry out their profession as dentists and dental hygienists with integrity. Prior to that, the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry Assoc. Prof. Andris Ābeltiņš addressed the students. They were introduced to how work is organised at each clinic and department and reminded of infection control, ethics, and conduct in clinics before starting their clinical work.

RSU is one of the few universities in Europe that celebrates this significant moment in dental students’ education – meeting their first patients. Elsewhere in the world, especially in the US, this celebration has become one of the most important and ceremonial traditions at higher medical education institutions since the 1980s.

The first White Coat Ceremony took place in the US in 1989 at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Today, many medical and dental schools in the US and elsewhere have adopted the tradition. This event is celebrated in Canada, Israel, the UK, Poland and elsewhere. Since 1995, the tradition has also been taken up in the US by schools teaching pharmacy, veterinary medicine, physical therapy, and optometry. 

The RSU Faculty of Dentistry is one of the oldest faculties at RSU with the richest traditions, and the only one in Latvia to educate prospective dentists. The Dentistry study programme is one of the most popular at RSU, evidenced by having the most competition for state-funded study places. Students study dentistry for five years and already in their first years they have practical classes in pre-clinical training rooms using special mannequins resembling human heads.

It should be noted that the RSU Institute of Stomatology has special modern and well-equipped pre-clinical training rooms, thus students have the best possible preparation for their daily work with patients.