Background: Entering medicine for the first time is highly impressive for students, but we know little about the actual emotional learning processes taking place.
Aims: We aimed to get more insight into expectations, experiences and emotions of students during their first clinical experiences in a hospital compared to a nursing home.
Methods: We carried out a qualitative and a quantitative survey by administering questionnaires about expectations, impressive experiences and learning activities within two cohorts of first-year medical students before and after a 4-week nursing attachment.
Results: Despite different expectations, students reported similar experiences and learning activities for the nursing home and the hospital. Most impressive events were related to patient care, being a trainee, or professional identities being challenged. Students in nursing homes most often referred to their own relationships with patients. Students expressed different emotions, and frequently experienced positive and negative emotions at the same time.
Conclusions: Rewarding experiences (not only difficult or stressful events) do matter for medical professional development. Students need to learn how to deal with and feel strengthened by the emotions evoked during clinical experiences, which should be supported by educators. The nursing home and the hospital seem to be equally suited as learning environments.