Decline of medical student idealism in the first and second year of medical school: a survey of pre-clinical medical students at one institution

Idealism declines in medical students over the course of training, with some studies identifying the beginning of the decline in year 3 of US curricula.This study tested the hypothesis that a decline in medical student idealism is detectable in the first two years of medical school.We sought to identify differences in survey responses between first-year (MS1) and second-year (MS2) medical students at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of academic...