Johns Hopkins Hospital interns to hang up short white coats

BALTIMORE – Breaking with tradition, first-year residents in Johns Hopkins’ Osler Medical Training Program will no longer wear the short white coat.

The Baltimore Sun reports the short white coat was meant to symbolize that the residents were not true physicians until they spent some time on the job. But younger generations of residents increasingly have felt the short coat unnecessarily distinguished them from other residents.

The director of the residency program, Dr. Sanjay Desai, said in an email to residents that the coat’s meaning has changed to represent excessive rigidity, and the institution has to ensure traditions uphold core values. The change starts this July with the newest class.

Johns Hopkins has left several other traditions in the past, including requiring residents to be men, remain unmarried and live at the hospital.

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Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com