Patient's Attitude and Feeling toward the Presence of Medical Students in Shahid Mostafa Khomeini Educational Clinics

Patients are cornerstone of ambulatory teaching of medical students in clinics worldwide. Patient’s attitude and feeling towards the service they receive grounds for an increase in patients’ collaboration and consequently the quality of students’ clinical education. The aim of this study is to assess patient’s attitude and feeling toward the presence of medical students in educational clinics of Shahid Mostsfa Khomeini hospital. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 502 patients who visited 8 educational clinics of Shahid Mostafa Khomeini hospital in year 2013 who were selected through convenience sampling. Data was gathered using a researcher-made questionnaire. Face and content validity of the questionnaire as well as its reliability were confirmed using Chronbach’s Alpha (α=0.75). Statistical data analysis was performed using t-test and ANOVA. Mean score of patients’ feeling toward presence of medical students was 3.46±1 out of 5 total scores. In overall, 71.8% of patients were relaxed during history taking and examination by students. There was a significant statistical difference between mean and standard deviation of the feelings of patients informed about presence of students (3.81±0.73) and those non-informed (3.13±1.1) patients about negotiation (p=0.001, t=7.95). A significant difference was also observed between mean and standard deviation of the feelings of the patients toward examination and history taking by physicians of opposite gender (3.76±1) or the same gender (3.25±0.93) (p=0.001). In general, patient’s felt comfortable about presence of medical students during history taking and examination. But in case of being further informed about presence of students and emphasis on their role on students’ training as well as being guaranteed about their privacy, this feeling will be increased among patients.