Patients' Attitude towards Medical Students in a Teaching Hospital of Pakistan

To study patient's attitude towards medical students on clinical clerkship rotation in a hospital Descriptive Cross Sectional Study. Medical, Surgery and Gynae/Obs Departments of Pakistan Railway Teaching Hospital, Rawalpindi from March 30, to May 30, 2013. Two hundred and seventy five patients were included in the study through non probability purposive convenient sampling. A questionnaire was prepared to interview the patients participating in the study. Data collected was entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS Version 17]. Descriptive statistics were applied for all the variables to present the frequencies and percentages. For history taking, a larger preference was shown by the patients to the students' involvement irrespective of the gender; 55% patients recommended the presence of both male and female students, 50% patients were willing to allow medical students of either gender to take their medical history in the doctor's presence and 43% patients were willing to permit without a doctor's supervision. For medical examination by the medical students, patients were more inclined to the presence of a doctor but much more patients became gender conscious. 36% preferred the presence of both male and female students, 31% patients were willing to allow medical students of either gender in the doctor's presence and only 22% to permit medical students to carry out their examination without a doctor's supervision. Patients' preference to students' involvement while a medical procedure is carried out on them, in general, around 50% of the patients were reluctant; 48% patients would not allow medical students to be present as observers, 57% were reluctant to allow the students to carry out a procedure on them in the presence of a doctor and 68% patients were unwilling to let medical students to carry out a procedure on them in the absence of doctors. For gender conscious patients, a significantly larger preference was shown towards female students over male in all the three situations. It is concluded that the attitude of patients' towards the involvement of medical students in their clinical health care is related to the extent of students' involvement, the presence of a doctor[s] and the gender of the students and the patients