Abstract
This study investigated the effects of an ＂Early Clinical Exposure Course＂ provided by a medical university on the professionalism and basic-medicine learning outcomes of medical students. In the first phase of this study, a qualitative method was employed to analyze 374 notes on ＂On Doctoring,＂ which was submitted by 100 medical students who participated in the ＂Early Clinical Exposure Course,＂ to investigate the effects of the course on students. A quantitative analysis was conducted in the second phase, during which the correlation between the learning motivation, experience of the Early Clinical Exposure Course, and basic-medicine exam results of the 108 second-year medical students enrolled during the 2016- 2017 academic year was examined. The results revealed the following findings: (1) The tutors who adopted a mentoring system in the ＂Early Clinical Exposure Course＂ helped improve the medical knowledge, physician professionalism, and learning attitude of students. (2) Factors such as the duration of participation in the Early Clinical Exposure Course, examination anxiety, and the type of the class attended significantly influenced the academic performance of basic medicine learning outcomes, with the type of the class attended being the most significant factor. This indicated that the effect of early clinical exposure may vary according to the classroom environment. The influence of classroom organizational culture and the mentoring style of tutors should be further investigated. The results of this study can serve as a reference for planning medical humanities courses.