Teaching medical students in general practice: respecting patients' rights

BMJ 1997;315:1108-1109 (1 November)

Editorials

Teaching medical students in general practice: respecting patients' rights

More openness would benefit both patients and students

As health systems put more emphasis on primary care, it followsthat primary care settings will increasingly be used for teachingmedical students. The study this week by Flynn et al on patients'views about having a medial student present during consultationsin general practice confirmed the usual finding that patientsare happy to help medical education in this way (p 1142).¹ Butpatients were not always happy about how the student's presenceand involvement were presented. In particular some were concerned about informedconsent and confidentiality—the same issues that troublepatients in treatment and research.² ³ Changing practice toallay these concerns is important if controversy and distrustare to be avoided—and should also benefit patients andstudents in other ways.

Patients have the right to choose whether to participate inthe training of medical students.⁴ But in many cases in thisstudy patients' permission to have a student present . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Impact on patients of expanded, general practice based, student teaching: observational and qualitative study: John Benson, Thelma Quince, Arthur Hibble, Thomas Fanshawe, and Jon Emery
BMJ 2005 331: 89. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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Benson, J., Quince, T., Hibble, A., Fanshawe, T., Emery, J. (2005). Impact on patients of expanded, general practice based, student teaching: observational and qualitative study. BMJ 331: 89- [Abstract] [Full text]
Coleman, K., Murray, E. (2002). Patients' views and feelings on the community-based teaching of undergraduate medical students: a qualitative study. Fam Pract 19: 183-188 [Abstract] [Full text]