Effectiveness of early clinical exposure in learning respiratory physiology among the newly entrant MBBS students

Introduction: Early Clinical Exposure has been conceptualized to orient medical students towards actual clinical scenario and help them correlate their theoretical knowledge with real life situations in early years of MBBS courses. In the present study we explored the outcome of early clinical exposure in the context of basic science topics (Physiology) in fresh MBBS entrants and compared their performance with a conventionally taught control group. Methods: One hundred fifty voluntary students of 1st year MBBS (2015-16) batch consisted the sample of this study. They were divided into two groups through the simple random method (using computer generated random number table with roll numbers of the students). They were evaluated by MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) and OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) before and after being taught a basic Physiology topic (respiratory system) theoretically. The study group underwent clinical exposure before the post-test while the control group did not. Performance of the students was compared between the two groups by unpaired Student’s t-test whereas marks of pre and posttest within the same group were compared by paired student’s t– test. Everywhere p < 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: The marks of each group in the pre and post-tests differed significantly (p < 0.05 in each case). Post-test marks were significantly greater in each group though the level of improvement was strikingly higher in the study group (p=0.01). Though there was no significant difference in pre-test marks of both groups (p=0.73), post-test marks were significantly higher in the study group (p=0.04). Among the exposed students, majority (92%) opined that ECE was a better technique being practically oriented and more interesting while some (8%) found it to be more time and energy-consuming, suitable for selective portions of basic science topics. Conclusion: Early clinical exposure may be an effective technique to supplement the traditional theoretical teaching and improve the performance of fresh medical entrants in Physiology. It has better acceptability by the students and may be considered for inclusion in the existing pre-clinical curriculum with proper allocation of time and manpower.