The educational process at a medical institute of higher learning has its specific characteristics that have a direct influence on the professional development of students - an intense learning process full of emotional encounters with the patients` pain and suffering. Materials and Methods: A direct group anony- mous survey of students of medicine, nurses and maternity nurses at the Faculty of Medicine at the Trakia University has been conducted. A total of 56 fourth-year medical students, 25 nurses and 25 first-year mater- nity nurses have taken part in the survey. Results: More than half of the respondents had been to a hospital be- fore the beginning of their studies and have had mixed feelings about the visit to the clinical bases. Their first impressions involve the condition of the clinical base and the organisation of labour. During their first hospi- tal visit and encounter with patients, more than 2/3 of the future nurses and midwives and 100% of the doctors had accepted that `this is what reality is like` and that they `have to help people`. However, the vast majority of respondents state that they find invasive manipulations stressful. Almost all students are motivated to study this profession and consider it appropriate for their clinical practice to start in the middle of the first term. Discussion: Medical students understand what the core of the profession they have chosen is. Even though they had mixed feelings during their first hospital visits and even though they felt stress as a result of various medical interventions, the respondents accept the situation.
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