ABSTRACT
Medical students must have motivation to participate in medical care during clinical clerkships. How much interest students have in each department might be a factor in making them more active in clerkships. To make clerkships more effective, we performed a questionnaire survey to investigate the relationship between students' interest in each department and their eagerness in clinical clerkships and to investigate factors to increase their eagerness.<br>1) Questionnaires were distributed to 92 sixth-year medical students at the University of Tsukuba. The questionnaire consisted of 6-point Likert scales of 4 specific student attitudes in clerkships. We asked the same questions about clerkships at medical departments that each student found more or less interesting.<br>2) We asked the students to report anecdotes about when they were motivated to learn more in the clerkships. We grouped similar answers into categories.<br>3) The response rate was 94%. The students were more eager in departments they found more interesting than in departments they found less interesting.<br>4) Thirty-eight students reported a total of 56 anecdotes. Among the categories, questions or words of encouragement from patients were mentioned in 29 anecdotes, and devoted faculty members were mentioned in 9 anecdotes.<br>5) These results suggest that medical students' eagerness in clinical clerkships could be increased by deepening their interest in medical departments and by improving communication with patients and physicians.