Patients’ attitudes towards the presence of medical students during consultations

Figures & data

Table

Practice points
•Patients are in general favourable towards medical student presence during consultations.
•Older patients, patients born in the UK and patients with prior experience of medical students seem to be more favourable towards medical student participation.
•Compared with the White-British population patients from the non-White-British population are less receptive towards medical students.
•Patient education towards the importance of medical student involvement for the training of future doctors is highlighted.
•Patient rights of consent and choice should not be compromised.

Figure 1. Questionnaire used in study.

Figure 2. Breakdown of ethnic groups represented in the patient sample participating in the study.

Table 1.  Results of the outcome questions

2. How do you feel about the presence ofmedical students?	Extremely uneasy/ uneasy	Don’t mind	Eager/ very eager
	14.29% (n = 59)	77.48% (n = 320)	8.23% (n = 34)
3. Would you allow medical students to bepresent?	Yes		No
	91.95% (n = 377)		8.05% (n = 33)
4. How many medical students would youfeel comfortable with?	Less than 2	3–5	More than 5
	69.10% (n = 284)	17.76% (n = 73)	13.14% (n = 54)
5. Would you allow a medical studentduring your examination?	Yes		No
	87.32% (n = 365)		12.68% (n = 53)
6. Would you allow a medical student toexamine you under supervision?	Yes		No
	82.85% (n = 343)		17.15% (n = 71)
8. Importance of medical student presencefor their medical training?	Very important/ important	Not sure	Not important/ unnecessary
	93.09% (n = 377)	5.43% (n = 22)	1.48% (n = 6)
9. Importance of medical students examiningyou for their medical training?	Very important/ important	Not sure	Not important/ unnecessary
	86.80% (n = 355)	9.29% (n = 38)	3.91% (n = 16)

Figure 3. Odds ratios of a negative answer to outcome question by the different ethnic groups. Odds ratios with confidence intervals above 1 are significant. Answer to question 3 is missing for White-European due to statistically insignificant numbers of responses.