The need for early clinical exposure in medical education.

Introduction: Anxiety among medical students is highly prevalent and may negatively impact students' future practice. Transitioning from the pre-clinical to the clinical phase often presents considerable challenges. Early clinical exposure has been identified as beneficial in easing this transition. Most medical schools in Scandinavia already include a few weeks of exposure. Even so, student distress remains high. The study aimed to assess the need for more clinical exposure during the Bachelor of Science (BSc) programme in medicine based on students' subjective needs.

Methods: This cross-sectional study employed a non-probability sampling method to include medical students enrolled in the Master of Science (MSc) programme at the University of Southern Denmark. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to explore medical students' self-reported needs and attitudes towards the BSc programme. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarise and assess the data.

Results: Among the 120 students included, 90% perceived the clinical exposure during the BSc programme as insufficient. Furthermore, 68% felt inadequate in their understanding of a physician's clinical role, and 87% felt inadequacy in their understanding of the work-life balance within the profession upon completing the BSc degree. The estimated response rate was 13%.

Conclusions: The findings suggest a subjective need for more clinical exposure in the BSc programme. However, the impact of additional clinical exposure on student distress remains unclear.

Funding: The authors did not receive any funding or support.

Trial registration: Not relevant.