A rise in the number of patients refusing to take part in medical education could mean that medical students have gaps in their knowledge, experts at Birmingham University Medical School have warned.
The team of experts say medical students will miss out on important opportunities to conduct patient consultations unless more patients are willing to help with training.
Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics (Vol 34, Issue 2) the team from the university’s department of Primary Care and General Practice argue that students may be qualifying with gaps in their practical experience.
This has potentially damaging implications for the quality of newly-qualified doctors in the UK.
Currently, patients need to give explicit permission before medical students are allowed to become involved in their treatment or care.
The authors believe that this should be replaced by a system that starts with the idea that there is no reason why students who are competent to do so should not be helping to treat patients.
Associate Professor Nick Ross from the Birmingham team said: “Whilst the personal choice of each patient is of paramount importance, it is not in patients’ interests to see doctors who are not fully competent in a clinical environment.
“We believe that the current system does very little to encourage patients to take part in medical education or to explain the benefits of having a student present during a procedure.”
For more see the University of Birmingham.
Filed under: Health and Medicine, News | Tagged: doctors, health, medicine, training
