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Observational Study
. 2024 Dec 24;24(1):1525.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06557-x.

Consent to medical student teaching: an observational, cross-sectional study exploring the patient view

Niki Newman  1 , Fraser McKenzie  2 , Jonathan M Wells  2   3 , Tim Wilkinson  2 , John Dean  2 , Matthew Doogue  2   3 , Lutz Beckert  2   3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Consent to medical student teaching: an observational, cross-sectional study exploring the patient view

Niki Newman et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: New Zealand guidelines stipulate that patient consent is obtained for medical student involvement in clinical care, however, patients' preferences regarding consent for medical student teaching have not been widely explored. This study examined patient preferences for consent for medical student teaching with the aim to increase patient empowerment, to optimise care and to reflect societal expectations more accurately.

Method: Observational, semi-qualitative, cross-sectional study of in-patients. Each participant was presented with a series of nine hypothetical clinical scenarios and were allowed a limited number of responses. For each scenario the participants completed a short questionnaire about their preferences for consent. These included their preferred mode of consent (implicit, verbal or written), timing of consent, and who should take their consent. The analysis used descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression mixed models to investigate associations between patient characteristics and chosen mode of consent.

Results: There were 123 participants (50% male), median age was 64 years. Patients were admitted to either medical (69%), surgical (22%) or women's health (9%). Increasing age was statistically significantly associated with a preference for verbal and implicit rather than written consent with the exception of 'breaking bad news' and 'bedside teaching'. The majority of patients preferred verbal consent across all nine clinical scenarios (57-82%), including two surgical scenarios where verbal consent was preferred by 59%. Most patients preferred the supervising doctor to take consent, with no clear preference about the timing.

Conclusions: This study identifies the patient voice in the consent process for the involvement of medical students in clinical care. Although the patients' views generally align with an existing national consensus statement, there is variability in the expectations of the patients suggesting flexibility in the consent process is still needed. The preference for older patients for verbal or implicit consent compared with younger patients for more invasive scenarios highlights the need for consideration of inter-generational differences. Most patients in this study were willing to contribute to student learning in all scenarios.

Keywords: Informed consent; Medical student; Patients’ preferences; Patients’ view on consent; Patients’ view on medical student teaching; Sensitive examinations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The patients were all older than 18 years of age and provided written informed consent to voluntarily participate in the study. Ethics approval was given by the University of Otago Ethics Committee (reference number H19/142). The study adhered to the “Declaration of Helsinki” set of ethical principles for medical research that involves human participants. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Stacked bar chart presenting patient preferences for mode of consent by scenario. The width of each colour indicates the proportion of patients (n = 123) endorsing the specific type of consent. Each bar represents a different scenario, and scenarios are grouped in panels according to consensus statement recommended guidelines
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Patient’s preference for who took verbal or written consent
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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