Home Reports Social Sciences Content

Addressing medical students as ’student doctors’ may help quell patient fears

next article

07.11.2003

Simple semantics may help quell patient’s fears about taking part in medical education, according to a letter to this week’s BMJ.

Surprisingly, patients tend to accept a trainee’s presence in a consultation if they are addressed as student doctor or trainee doctor, as opposed to medical student, writes Dr Hany George El-Sayeh. This may be because of fears about being seen by a scruffy, disinterested youth who may well later report their intimacies in the bar.

He also recommends introducing a “donor card” system in education, whereby patients attending clinics are warned in advance of a trainee’s potential presence, and the onus is put on them to opt out of the process. Currently patients are usually asked (rather embarrassingly) in clinics if they mind a trainee being present.

Trainees themselves could counter stereotypes by making a greater effort to appear interested, smart, and punctual – all in line with their new “student doctor” status, he concludes.

For further information please contact:

British Medical Association, BMA House
Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP
Tel: 0044-20-7383-6254, email: pressoffice@bma.org.uk

Emma Dickinson | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.bma.org.uk

next article