Effectiveness of early clinical exposure in improving attitude and professional skills of medical students in current Indian medical education set up

INTRODUCTION: As a part of education reforms Medical Council of India has introduced early clinical exposure (ECE) as an important intervention in Medical teaching. It is stated in the literature, ECE helps to relieve stress of the students pertaining to patient handling, developing real-time clinical reasoning ability, communication skills, professional attitude, and patient empathy. With this view, this study was planned to assess effectiveness of early clinical exposure in improving attitude and professional skills in the current Indian medical education set up. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out amongst 820 students for three years duration. Students were randomly divided into two groups viz. ECE exposed group (Group A) and Traditional teaching exposed group (Group B). We conducted periodical sessions (Each duration: 60 minutes). We used a validated 10-point questionnaire for feedback collection. RESULTS: Using perception-based 10-point questionnaire based on Likert scale we found, 93.21% of students strongly agreed that the method of ECE teaching aroused interest in learning. 86.03% of students strongly agreed that the method of ECE teaching technique helped in better retention of topic. 89.91% of students strongly agreed that the method of ECE teaching imparts better clinical context. 92.75% of students strongly agreed that the method of ECE teaching allows better assimilation of knowledge gained during learning. With ECE-based teaching 87.42% of students found highly satisfied while 81.22% of students found highly competent about the knowledge and skills thus acquired via this teaching methodology. 95.11% of students liked ECE teaching methodology and these students enjoyed it a lot and with interest. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that early clinical exposure is the most important teaching tool in improving attitude and professional skills in the current Indian medical education set up.