The effect of attendance at the bedside of medical students at pre-clinical phase on learning of clinical immunology topics

Abstract

The early years of medical education (especially the first 2 years) are critical to the academic success of medical students. In traditional medical education curricula, students learn theoretical knowledge without patient contact in the clinical setting. Early clinical exposure (ECE) has been proposed to help new medical students overcome their stressors and motivate them to develop better insight and awareness of the medical profession. Our goal is to determine the effect of clinical exposure on the knowledge and attitude of medical students of the clinical preparatory stage regarding the topics of clinical immunology in Tabriz Medical School in 1401-1402. Methods: In a semi-experimental study, 60 medical students of the sixth semester of the clinical preparatory course were randomly selected. Then 30 selected students in the clinical exposure plan were assigned to the intervention group and 30 to the comparison group. The educational content of the clinical immunology unit was provided to the people of the intervention group by teaching in the lecture method along with educational pamphlets and slides during the semester. Then, the students' learning rate was analyzed in the form of pre- and post-tests. Results: In this study, 60 students of the 6th semester who were studying in the clinical preparatory course were included in the study, of which 24 (40%) were male and 36 (60%) were female. In the comparison group, the average pre-test scores of the students were 5.46 ± 1.00 and the average post-test scores were 6.0 ± 0.90. In the intervention group, the average pre-test scores of the students were 5.2 ± 1.32 and the average post-test scores were 6.43 ± 0.56. The post-test difference between the control and intervention groups was statistically significant (P = 0.030).