Regional Hospitals Host Internal Medicine White Coat Ceremony

On Thursday, June 17, 2021, Good Samaritan and Ascension St. Vincent Evansville will welcome twenty-four Internal Medicine residents during a White Coat Ceremony at 2:00 pm CST/3:00 pm EST. Link to virtual webinar: https://bit.ly/3bGyHpZ

Half of this year’s residents will receive their white coat at Good Samaritan in Vincennes, and the other half will receive their coat at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville, thus bringing the campuses together in one live event.

The new class of residents will bring local, national, and international experiences together as they train over the next three years and hail from top medical schools including UCLA, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Medicine.

During the ceremony, the residents will receive their long white coats signifying the end of medical school and the beginning of practicing medicine. According to the American Medical Association, the white coat also symbolizes professionalism, caring, and trust, which the residents must earn from their patients.

After several years of preparation and successful accreditation, the Internal Medicine program started in June of 2020 and is designed to address the primary care shortage in southwest Indiana and southeastern Illinois by training general internal medicine physicians for the region.

Patient care has been robust at each site as over 10,000 patient visits have been recorded this year to date. Robert Ficalora, MD, is the program director of the Southwest Indiana Internal Medicine Residency Program. He notes that "keeping patients at the center of our care, improving the health in our region and making medical care accessible and affordable as key to the success of the program."

Indiana University School of Medicine is the sponsoring organization for the Southwest Indiana Internal Medicine Residency Program and provides Institutional leadership through the flagship Indianapolis location as well as the IUSM‐Evansville campus (which is proximate to both Good Samaritan Hospital and Ascension St. Vincent Evansville).