62 new medical students to don white coats

Thirty-seven women and 25 men will receive white lab coats in a traditional ceremony tonight marking the beginning of their medical training.

The 62 students make up the Class of 2011 in the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

James Burns, retired chief judge of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, will deliver the charge to the first-year students. The school is named for his father, the late Gov. John A. Burns.

A processional and Hawaiian oli (chant) led by Dr. S. Kalani Brady, the medical school's associate chairman of native Hawaiian health, will open the ceremony at 6:30 p.m. at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Tapa Ballroom.

The White Coat Ceremony was conceived by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, dedicated to fostering humanism in medicine.

The symbolic white coats -- called "cloaks of compassion" -- will be placed on the students' shoulders by members of the Class of 1986. The new class will take a beginner's Hippocratic Oath "to never do harm."

All but seven of those in the new class are Hawaii residents. They represent 12 public high schools and 38 private schools in the state.

Despite high interest in enrolling in the UH medical school, classes have been held to 62 in recent years based on availability of clinical training opportunities and other factors.

Tonight's event is sponsored by the Friends of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, led by attorney Beadie Dawson.