"May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help": all the emotion of Dr Federica Giordano, Alumna of the Class of 2019, was felt and shared as she recited the Hippocratic Oath, the central and solemn part of the White Coat Ceremony of the integrated programme in Medicine and Surgery held on 4 October in the Auditorium of the Rome campus of Università Cattolica.
It is the first White Coat Ceremony of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, different from those in North America where - since the first one in 1993 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Columbia University - it corresponds to the beginning of the School of Medicine. It represents a rite of passage between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth year: with this 'initiation', future doctors enter the phase of clinical studies that will complete their training over the next three years.
