The effect of early clinical exposure program on first year medical student's attitudes and function in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Education in medicine can face several problems such as facing unknown clinical environment. Medical education has paid attention to early clinical exposure. Early clinical exposure can increase students’ motivation and decrease professional tension. The present study is conducted under the goal of determining one- month course of early clinical exposure to clinical environment effect on medical students’ attitude and function.
The target population of this descriptive study consisted of 70 first year medical students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The participants fulfilled the questionnaires with LIKERT scale scored from 1= very weak to 5= very good after attending early clinical Exposure program. Confidence coefficient derived from the questionnaire was 0. 87 based on Cronbach’s α.
All participants fulfilled the questionnaires with questions related to early clinical exposure program in clinical environment. The results demonstrate that 80% of students considered early clinical exposure effective and suitable. 80% of the mentioned students considered this program presentation was effective on students’ attitudes towards medical profession. Totally, 77.1% of the participants evaluated this program very good and they appraised performing this program on motivating students and enhancing their communication skills and responsibility.
Based on the results of this study, holding short-term course of early clinical exposure as a factor to lead students towards a better function and motivation caused a better learning. So, it is recommended to consider early clinical exposure program as a part of medical students’ educational programs.