Medical students' involvement in patients' care varies according to patient's willingness, as some might consider it a privacy invasion. Thus, exploring patients' perceptions and attitudes towards this interaction should be thoroughly investigated, to better understand it and to provide evidence-based data for improving the training of future doctors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Jordan University Hospital. A questionnaire was answered by 420 patients from the out-patients' clinics. Results: Of the patients interviewed, 94% were aware that they were in a teaching hospital, 92% approved the presence of medical students during their consultation and 80% accepted to be observed and examined by medical students in the presence of a senior doctor. However, this decreased to 30.5% if there was no senior doctor. Almost 83% of the patients believed that their consent should be obtained first. However, only 58% of them indicated that the student asked for consent prior to interacting with them. Patients who were more likely to approve the existence of medical students during consultation and allow students to perform procedures on them, respectively, were those who were asked for consent by students (P = 0.001 and P = 0.021), considered seeing medical students' enjoyable (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001), thought that their privacy was not violated (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001), and were provided with useful information about their health problems (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001). Conclusion:Patients showed an overall positive stance towards the involvement of medical students in their healthcare. The majority were delighted to see medical students while some expressed concerns over their privacy due to the large number of students and because several students do not ask for their consent. It is essential to apply medical ethics practices together with patient-centered approach.
BACKGROUND Medical students’ involvement in patients’ care varies due to patient’s willingness, as some consider it as an invasion of their privacy and exposure of their disease status. Thus, exploring patients' perceptions and attitudes towards this interaction should be thoroughly investigated. OBJECTIVE To better understand the attitude of Jordanian patients towards the presence of medical students’ during their consultations and provide evidence-based data to improve the training of future doctors. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Jordan University Hospital using a structured questionnaire to interview 420 patients from the out-patients’ clinics of the departments; Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Surgery. Descriptive and multivariate data analysis was conducted using SPSS (version 25.0). RESULTS Of the patients interviewed, 94% were aware that they were in a teaching hospital, 92% approved the existence of medical students’ during their consultation and 80% accepted to be observed and examined by medical student in the presence of a senior doctor. Almost 83% of the patients believed that their consent should be obtained first and 58% of them indicated that the students asked for consent prior to interacting with them. Around 64% of the participants indicated that the maximum acceptable number of students during the consultation should not exceed 2-3, 64% had no preferred gender to interact with and 59% had no preferred training year. CONCLUSIONS Patients showed an overall positive stance towards the involvement of medical students’ in their healthcare. The majority were delighted to see medical students’ while some expressed concerns over their privacy due to the large number of students and because some do not ask for their consent. It is essential to apply medical ethics practices together with patient centered approach.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.