Patient and preceptor attitudes towards teaching medical students in General Practice

Abstract

BackgroundCurricula in most western medical universities include teaching in the primary care setting as core elements. This affects GP-teachers, their patients and their interaction. Therefore, it was the aim of this study to assess the influence of the presence of medical students in the teaching practice on the attitudes of both GPs and patients.MethodsSeventy-four GP-preceptors were invited to answer an online survey. Patients attending consultations with a medical student present completed questionnaires either before the consultation (WR group) or immediately after consultation (AC group).ResultsFifty- nine preceptors completed the online survey. Physicians showed positive attitudes towards their activities as preceptors: 95% expressed a positive attitude predominantly towards being a role model and to represent the discipline and for 64% remuneration was not important. In 28 practices 508 questionnaires were completed by patients in the WR-group and 346 by the AC-group. Only 12% (WR) and 7.2% (AC) of patients expressed a preference for being seen by the doctor alone. While 16% of doctors rated that confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship is compromised, only 4.1% (WR) and 1.7% (AC) of patients felt so.ConclusionThe motivation to be a preceptor is primarily driven by personal and professional values and not by economic incentives. Further, patients have even more positive attitudes than the preceptors towards the presence of students during their consultation. Reservations to teaching students in GP-practices are, therefore, unwarranted.

Attending Physician Perceptions of the Benefits and Disadvantages of Teaching Medical Students on Clinical Clerkships at a Regional Medical Campus

“…4,11 Overwhelmingly, physicians at KUSM-S valued having medical students on their service. Physicians felt energized by the presence of medical students, noted an overall increase in job satisfaction, enjoyed passing on their knowledge and being part of the education of the next generation of physicians, and felt valued by both students and the RMC administration.…”

“…based on physician comments she and other students heard during clerkships and on issues raised by other authors studying this issue. [4][5][6][7]11 The fourteen Likert scale questions are listed in A preliminary email was sent to the physicians explaining the nature of the questionnaire and when it would be delivered. Several days later, the physicians were notified that the survey was open.…”

The impact of family medicine clerkships in undergraduate medical education: a systematic review

“…Three studies had a mixed target population of students, FPs and/or patients. [28][29][30] Thirteen studies were non-randomised controlled studies and 12 were pre-post (uncontrolled) studies (table 3). The sample size ranged from 16 to 1095 students, 3 to 146 teaching FPs and 94 to 2550 patients.…”

“…91 In some studies, a small number of patients (1-6%) reported a negative effect of the student's presence during the consultation, such as longer consultations 31 86 91 or more difficulty/less space to talk about personal problems. 87 91 Although one study reported a significant difference in length of consultations with and without students present as recorded by the FPs, 88 in other studies, the majority of patients did not think that either their consultation took longer when a student was present 29 or that time with their FP or the FP's attention was reduced due to the presence of a student. 31 …”

Is three a crowd? Impact of the presence of a medical student in the general practice consultation

“…From a patient perspective, research to date suggests that although in general patients are supportive of a medical student being present during their consultation, there is a proportion of patients (albeit small) who have concerns about this . Additionally, many patients believe they play an important role in the learning experience of medical students .…”