Transactions of the Sixty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society
Factors influencing obstetric and gynecologic patients' decisions toward medical student involvement in the outpatient setting

Presented at the Sixty-sixth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, Cancun, Mexico, October 20-24, 1999.
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Abstract

Objective: We sought to determine the reasons for obstetric and gynecologic patients' acceptance or refusal of medical student participation in their outpatient care. Study Design: A descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study of 180 patients at the University of California, San Francisco, was done to identify factors involved in patient acceptance or refusal of medical student participation in their outpatient obstetric-gynecologic visit. Responses were analyzed by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests for rank order tests of factors involved in the decision to accept or decline medical student participation and χ2 or Fisher exact tests for comparison of data among different groups. Results: Reasons for accepting medical student involvement included the desire to contribute to the training of future physicians and the desire for the highest standard of care. Reasons for refusing medical student involvement included the protection of patient privacy and the low comfort level with the examination. The acceptance rate for medical students during the obstetric visits was 89.1%, and that during the gynecologic visits was 81.4%. Conclusion: Private faculty patients, as well as Medicaid patients, have a high acceptance of both male and female medical students in the obstetric-gynecologic outpatient setting. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 2000;182:1429-32.)

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Methods

Written questionnaires were distributed to 340 patients who had the option of having a medical student participate in their care in the obstetric-gynecologic outpatient setting. These patients received their obstetric and gynecologic care at the various women's health centers affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, between January 1998 and June 1998. Sample questions from the questionnaire are shown in Table I.

. Sample questions from questionnaire

1. Today, were you willing to

Results

One hundred eighty of the 340 questionnaires were completed, reflecting a response rate of 53%. The study group consisted of women of all educational levels, with a mean age of 30.8 years. Of the study participants, 84% accepted medical student participation, whereas 16% declined medical student involvement. The ethnic composition of the women participating in the study was 57% white, 13% Hispanic, 13% Asian, 12% African American, and 5% identified as other. The distribution of women at the

Comment

This study showed that the majority of patients receiving outpatient obstetric-gynecologic care at the University of California at San Francisco accepted medical student participation.

The most frequent factor in deciding to accept medical student participation by patients was a desire to contribute to the training of future physicians. Short of encouraging patients to be altruistic, there is not a significant way to alter this factor. The method of presenting the student was deemed important by

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