Many medical schools have recently introduced clinical exposure in the early years of training. During this period of early clinical exposure, medical students observe many aspects of a hospital and its staff. Because they do not yet have any special knowledge of medicine, medical students are able to understand problems in medicine from a patient's point of view. We sent questionnaires to students of several medical schools and investigated what students learned, especially about communication. We reported on voluntary research by some medical students at Osaka University. We believe that early clinical exposure gives medical students a chance to recognize and consider many aspects of medicine.

Approximately 80 % of medical students start medical training in a specific department at their medical school hospital after graduation and do not experience medical practices in other departments. Therefore, a questionnaire survey of conditions in and opinions about the present postgraduate clinical training was conducted among trainees at Osaka University Hospital. Questionnaires were returned by 136 of the 156 trainees (87.2 %). Their average income was ¥255, 000 per month. Approximately 85 % of trainees had less than 1 day's vacation each month. Forty percent of trainees were not satisfied with the present postgraduate clinical training course, because 75 % felt that their training life was too busy and did not allow them to observe a variety of diseases. These results suggest that the postgraduate medical training program in university hospitals should be changed to include various disciplines in several departments in cooperation with other hospitals and clinics for outpatients. To raise the quality of postgraduate medical training, an education system for trainees must be established and duties unrelated to medical examinations and treatment must be reduced.