The importance of early clinical exposure (ECE) for undergraduate medical students

Abstract

The primary objective of medical college education is to produce competent physicians who can deal with the common ailments of society. To this end, the medical curricula should preferably be practically oriented and provide medical students a chance to polish their skills during the college years, and not after graduation in the hospitals and clinics. This can only be achieved by providing them with opportunities to interact with patients and disease management at an early stage of their college life. Given that four or five years of supervised clinical exposure and training would provide students with the confidence and competence to deal with common diseases, this model of early clinical exposure should be the recommended format of medical curricula.