Medical schools: Students today

Physicians that are faculty members in medical schools receive new students every year, and they are expected to prepare those students to become professionals. They usually appeal to their experience to meet that challenge. However, newer generations of students are different, and experience, with no formal training for teaching them, can be insufficient. New characteristics of students can be related to their early contact in life with information technology. Their brain has been somehow modified by stimuli offered by this technology, and the way they learn has also been modified. This paper is a reflection about how students have changed and it analyzes how their learning experience needs to be modified accordingly. Teaching based only on experience might be insufficient to fulfill the expectations of young students that have chosen the medical profession for their future. (Rev Med Chile 2011; 139: 524-528).