Medical Students’ Perspectives on What They Hope to Learn From Their Future Attendings

Abstract

Medical school is divided into preclinical education and clinical education. Students are taught basic foundational sciences such as human anatomy, pathology, physiology, biochemistry, and other disciplines during preclinical education. Once they have reached clinical education, starting their third years, students go into the rotational systems where they get to experience and explore different specialties in medicine. The attending physicians will teach these students during these rotations. This article examines the perspectives of a small group of medical students about what they want to learn from their attendings when they proceed to the clinical education stage of their career. These perspectives were conducted through an informal interview where students are allowed to freely express their curiosity and what they hope to learn from their future attendings. The composed list of what students want to learn aims to provide a small insight into the interests that students hold when they transition from preclinical to clinical education.