A questionnaire analysis of early postgraduate clinical training of 6th-year medical students was conducted for 3 consecutive years. After graduation, 32% of the students wished to become family physicians, 58% wished to become specialists, and 9% wished to become other types of doctors. The type of postgraduate clinical training most often considered ideal was superrotation, followed by rotation and straight track. Superrotation should be introduced to junior residents during postgraduate clinical training as should a variety of subspecialty training courses for specialists, including family medicine for senior residents.

We evaluated bedside learning in the department of pediatric surgery by conducting a questionnaire survey of senior medical students at Chiba University School of Medicine. We obtained responses from 70 of 95 students (74%). Although 84% of students responded by making lists of patients' problems. Many students indicated insufficient knowledge about diseases and insufficient technical skills for medical treatment as the reasons they could not solve these problems. This finding indicates that students do not have sufficient basic knowledge and clinical skills for bedside learning. These skills must be acquired and evaluated before bedside learning can be started.