Abstract
Background: Exposure to an unfamiliar clinical environment is highly important for medical students since it affects their attitudes. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effect of implementing a short course of familiarity with the clinical environment through video-based education and learning-in-hospital settings on the attitudes of first-year medical students. Methods: In the present quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design, 59 first-year medical students were divided into two groups of “learning-in-hospital settings” and “video-based education”. Students' attitudes and motivations were measured using questionnaires, and the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 22. Results: The attitude of most students from learning-in-hospital settings group was positive before and after the exposure. The attitude of most students from the video-based education group, on the other hand, was positive after watching the video while it was negative before the intervention; this difference, however, was not statistically significant (P = 0.1). In pre-exposure and post-exposure stages, the motivation of students in video-based education group was higher than that of students in learning-in-hospital settings group, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.6). Female students in video-based education group had a higher positive attitude (P = 0.02) than male students (P = 0.01) before and after the exposure, and were highly motivated. Conclusions: Early clinical exposure to learning-in-hospital settings and, particularly, to video-based education may have been an effective factor contributing to motivating and encouraging the medical students.