Background:

Throughout medical education, students are gradually incorporated into authentic clinical practice scenarios.

Aim:

To describe the use of clinical learning strategies by Chilean students and compare them according to sex and year of training.

Material and Methods:

The Clinical Learning Strategies Questionnaire (CEACLIN) was applied to 336 students from the 4th to 6th year of medicine at a Chilean university.

Results:

The most frequently reported strategies were related to the search for autonomy, reliable environments for learning, observation of others and attention to emotions. The less frequent was the handling of academic burden. Gender accounted for significant differences in eight of the 11 strategies identified by CEACLIN, while years of training accounted for five of the 11.

The cluster analysis identified two groups:

the first group comprised nine CEACLIN strategies, with a slightly higher proportion of women and 5th and 6th year students. The second group consisted mainly of men in the 4th year.

Conclusions:

Reported strategies include a set of actions oriented to the development of autonomy and confidence through the search for valid information and learning from and with others. These findings are associated with sex and year of training.