Attitudes of patients towards the involvement of medical students in their intrapartum obstetric care

Data investigating patients' attitudes towards and expectations of medical students in an obstetric setting are limited. We have examined the attitudes of pregnant women towards the involvement of medical students in their intrapartum care. Ethics committee approval and informed patient consent were obtained. A survey of 203 antenatal patients was performed. Chi-squared tests were applied to discrete and Student's t-test to continuous data. Only 62% of antenatal patients were prepared to accept medical student participation in their intrapartum care, although 84% agreed that participation was important for student education. Of note, only 43% of patients were prepared to have a male medical student involved in their care. Only 54% of patients correctly identified that the description medical student referred to a doctor in training, others defining it to include nurses, midwives and other hospital staff in training. If increasing numbers of patients decline medical student participation in their intrapartum care, then alternative teaching strategies may be required. Medical educators need to ensure that patients are aware of the role of medical students in order to gain informed consent from patients for student participation in their care.