Medical clerks' attitudes towards the basic sciences: a longitudinal and a cross-sectional comparison between students in a conventional and an innovative curriculum.

Background: This study is the longitudinal sequel to a survey published by Custers and Ten Cate in December 2002 in which advanced medical students' attitudes towards the basic sciences were investigated. Students were enrolled in either a conventional or an innovative curriculum.
Aims and Methods: The aim of the present study was to assess longitudinal development of students' attitudes by recording beginning and advanced clerks responses to nine disagree-agree statements concerning the basic sciences.
Results: In general, most students in either curriculum acknowledge the importance of biomedical knowledge. Students in the conventional curriculum appear to assign a slightly more important role to the basic sciences than students in the innovative curriculum, and this difference is maintained over the clinical years. Surprisingly, advanced clerks in either curriculum are more likely than beginning clerks to support the view that many basic science facts should be learned before application in a clinical context.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that students during their clerkships might experience regret having not paid more attention to factual basic science knowledge in their preclinical years. Finally, students in the innovative curriculum hold more favourable opinions about the way the basic sciences are taught in their curriculum.