加拿大约克大学以 他命名了白求恩医学院，安大略省他家乡斯卡区的中学也以他命名。1964年中国以他的事迹拍了一部电影1977年加拿大也拍了一部电影；1990年中、加、法又合拍了一部《白求恩：英雄的历程》。

1990年3月，为庆祝白求恩大夫诞辰100周年，中国和加拿大分别发行了纪念邮票。

1998年他被正式接纳入“加拿大医学名人纪念堂”，2004年加拿大评选“加拿大名人”，他被评选为第26位名人。

他是被中国政府树立雕像的第一位外国人。

白求恩在格雷文赫斯特的故居被加拿大政府列入加拿大全国文物保护单位，现在是白求恩纪念 堂。楼下的书房、卧室等都保持19世纪末白求恩生前在此居住时布置，二楼是白求恩事迹展览室。

 Norman Bethune (1890-1939) was a Canadian thoracic surgeon. During the 1930s he became a convinced communist, and this led him to Spain, where he joined the anti-Fascist struggle. On the Spanish battle fields he became aware that 75% of serious battle casualties would survive if operated on immediately. In early 1938, he arrived in China, and proceeded to Yan'an, the revolutionary base area of the Chinese Communist Party. Mao Zedong commissioned him to organize a mobile operating unit in the interior of North China. Although he was forced to work under extreme circumstances, sometimes operating for forty hours straight without sleep, and within minutes of the front lines, he saved the lives of many Chinese partymembers and soldiers. He died of septicemia, contracted when he cut himself while operating under great pressure from advancing Japanese forces.

    

 Many apocryphal stories exist about Bethune. He was said to be a heavy drinker, and to be a womanizer to boot. Despite this, he was—and still is—widely admired in China. In the opening days of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), an early essay written by Mao Zedong entitled "In Memory of Norman Bethune" was incorporated in the so-called "Three Constantly Read Articles", together with "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" and "Serve the People". These essays were part of the narrow selection of reading materials considered ideologically correct: they became elementary reading in the schools, from universities down to the elementary levels.

In 1990, Donald Sutherland (as the good doctor) and Hellen Mirren (as his wife) starred in Bethune: The Making of A Hero. The movie, co-produced by China and Canada, was filmed on location.

In recent years, Bethune seemed to have slipped from the public view. After the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in China was belatedly acknowledged by the government in April 2003, Bethune's reputation suddenly was invoked again. Volunteers who go to Beijing to take part in the 'people's war' that is being waged against the disease are referred to in the media as Bethunes, and medical workers are praised for 'carrying forward the spirit of Bethune'.

Sources:
Ted Allan and Sydney Gordon, The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Doctor Norman Bethune (New York, etc.: The Monthly Review Press 1973)
Xu Yan