A Longitudinal Study on Learning Outcome through Early Clinical Exposure

In terms of professional identity formation, the early clinical exposure course (abbreviated as ECE Course) is launched since 2015 in Taipei Medical University (abbreviated as TMU). Except TMU, the ECE Course is implemented in many other local medical schools as well. For instance, medical schools in Cheng Gong University, in Fu-Jen University and the Chung-Shan Medical University also provide ECE Courses. The TMU Format was inspired by Cheng Gong Medical School, which was the earliest in Taiwan who conduct the early clinical exposure course, also called On Doctoring Course since 2011. The TMU Format adapted the idea of early clinical exposure and the concept of mentorship. This study aims at framing the TMU ECE Modell and at investigating its effects on students’ academic performance, clinical skills, and vocational development. For this purpose, we conduct the mixed methods: Based on a qualitative data analysis on students’ learning portfolio we identified the three learning theories. These theories guide us to identify related variables and measuring tools that could quantify students’ learning behaviors during the early clinical exposure. Then we will conduct multiple linear regression to investigate the correlation between students learning behaviors, background variables, their academic performance in basic and applied medical science, and the results of Professionalism questionnaire. The research results maybe informative for medical teachers who are interested in the ECE course.