RESUMO
Background : Patients are becoming increasingly active in their relationship with medical professionals. Their relationship with medical students needing to learn clinical skills, may be specially problematic if patients are not willing to accept their involvement in the medical team. Aim: To examine patient's perceptions of their relation with medical students and their agreement to let students be part of the treating team. Material and Methods: Qualitative study using taped semi-structured interviews addressed to inpatients from one public and one private hospital in Chile. Results: Both groups of patients acknowledged that students dedicated more time to them, but they expressed their preference to limit student's participation to clinical history taking and physical examination. They also expected them to be observers rather than actors. Patients from the private hospital emphasized that only one student per instructor should participate in their care. Patients from the public hospital were more compliant about student's participation. The right to refuse students' involvement in their care was clearly known by all patients from the private system and by most patients from the public hospital. Conclusions: Patients in Chilean public and private hospitals were in general positive regarding student's participation in their care. Students' clinical practice ought to strictly respect patients's rights, and patients should be considered volunteers who generously agree to cooperate with the education of medical students.