Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: Aneel A Bhangu Please don't touch me there: the ethics of intimate examinations: Consent is crucial—but don't go too far, for students' and patients' sakes BMJ 2003; 326: 1326-a [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Consent and training issues

Nitika Silhi   (13 June 2003)

Consent and training issues 13 June 2003
Nitika Silhi, SHO ITU UCL Hospital, London Send response to journal: Re: Consent and training issues	Dear Editor, Aneel A Bhangu is right to be concerned about how far we should go with patient consent but also right to be more concerned about his own training. In these days of increasing medical student numbers he has learnt that the opportunities to learn from a real live patient are few and far between. Maybe it is prudent to learn on a mannikin initially but most of us would have moved on to the "real" thing in our training and compared to the real thing I'm sure many would agree there is no comparison. Taking this further what would the patient like at 2am - a doctor who is fully competent and has performed the task before on a real person or a doctor who is shaking because this is his first time on something with a heart beat or a delay in the procedure whilst the doctor goes to find someone to supervise his first attempt? The more worrying fact is that with reduced hours of training how far could a doctor go in their training without having to perform the task? In my trust there would be no house officer at 2am. I agree that informed consent is important but we must look at the bigger picture and the "quality control" of our production line instead of watching our backs at every opportunity. Competing interests:   None declared