Table 1.

Perspectives taken on the transition from pre‐clinical to clinical training in the literature

	Frequently used associated transition terms	Focused on	Strategies to improve the transition	Summary of one example in the literature
Educational	Struggle Difficult Anxiety Stressful	Narrowing the gap between pre‐clinical and clinical training What students should know and be able to do	Transition to clerkship courses or orientations Problem‐based learning Early patient contact Targets knowledge, skills, logistics, assessment details	Chittenden et al.12 conducted a descriptive comparative study with 155 students who underwent a 7‐day, low‐stakes, high‐fidelity transition to clerkship course and compared perceived preparedness (in six skill sets), course satisfaction, performance in first clerkship and preceptor satisfaction to 147 controls who received a standard preparation for clerkships. Students felt more prepared for two of six skills, felt more confident and there was no difference in performance between groups.
Social	Struggle Difficult Anxiety Stressful	Cultural norms and fitting in Developing relationships with others	Introduction to staff to gain familiarity during orientations Targets students fitting in to the clinical team and peer and near‐peer relationships	Knobloch et al.49 described a mixed‐methods, descriptive case study with a historical cohort for comparison. They created a near‐peer‐led transition to clerkship seminar within a transition course. The seminar was 155 minutes and focused on integrating into teams, creating a study plan and a general question and answer session. In total 7 to 10 students were paired with two to three instructors. Students felt more prepared in the domains focused on immediately after the session and 6 months after.
Developmental	Challenging Opportunity Empowerment Trajectory	Personal and professional development Learning strategies and reflection	Portfolios Reflective interviews Targets learning strategies and promoting reflection	Pitkala and Mantyranta42 introduced a 1‐year portfolio in the first clinical year, which focused on learning diaries, narratives, logbooks, self‐evaluations and feedback from staff. Students reflected on feeling stressed and intimidated at the beginning but eventually enjoyed their student–doctor role. This strategy helped students to reflect on and recognise key experiences and supported professional development