Abstract
Background:
Competency-based medical education includes “early clinical exposure” (ECE) to increase understanding and concept building in the first phase of medical education. ECE does not replace basic sciences and conventional teaching but rather enriches and contextualizes that learning.

Aim:
To assess the importance of early clinical exposure in the first MBBS medical training session when taught as an adjunct to conventional didactic lectures.

Method:
We started with didactic lectures on a specific topic in electrocardiograms (ECGs) followed by early clinical exposure (ECE) on the same topic. This was done in a hospital setting with real patients. We obtained approval from the institutional ethical committee, and students were included in the study after signing a consent letter.

Result:
The students returned a completed questionnaire after the didactic lecture, and the same students returned the questionnaire after an additional session of early clinical exposure. The students here acted as their own controls. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon tests were performed, which revealed that the results were highly significant (p<0.001).

Conclusion:
ECE was perceived as very satisfactory by the students, and it helped improve the building concept, clarity in the usefulness of the classroom, and theoretical teaching. This will also spike their interest in the subject in the long run. Early clinical exposure might prove to be instrumental in bridging the gap between theory and practice from the beginning of medical education if it is executed properly.

Key words: Early clinical exposure, Didactic lecture, Medical education, Competency-based medical education