Early Clinical Exposure in Physiology

Abstract

In India, the medical council of India (MCI) has taken steps to implement competency-based undergraduate curriculum from 2019 throughout the country. In this new curriculum, MCI has recommended for introduction of Early Clinical Exposure (ECE), as part of training of 1^st MBBS students.^[1] ECE is a method adopted by medical educationists to foster exposure of medical students early in their first year in medical college to patients through genuine human contact, not through simulations. It is the new paradigm of medical education and training. It sounds easier to integrate basic science subjects for clinical years student as they can easily revert back to basic science subjects and further improve their competency levels. However, it is more challenging to introduce clinical years subjects into preclinical years which is the formative years for an undergraduate student to learn the basics and therefore overburdening with clinical disciplines has to be carefully avoided. ECE is an appropriate solution for this challenge. Life of a medical student in the very first year is both challenging and yet interesting. There is a demand of a comprehensive and integrated approach for solving the issues pertaining to practical skill-based knowledge in medicine. Therefore, the sooner the students are exposed to the reality of their profession, the better they will appreciate the role of first MBBS topics as the building blocks in their MBBS career.