Impact of medical student presence in the General Practice Consultation

Background: While evidence suggests patients generally accept the presence of a student during a General Practice consultation, there is minimal literature comparing patient satisfaction with and without a student present and the impact of the student presence on the GPs ability to manage the problem and the student’s learning experience.

Summary of Work: A cross sectional observational study was conducted of GPs accepting third-year University of Queensland Rural Clinical School medical students, their patients and medical students. The GP, the Patient and if present the student were asked to complete a questionnaire following 5 consultations per week for 4 weeks with a student present, and another 5 consultations per week for 4 weeks without a student present.

Summary of Results: Overall there were no differences in the length of consultations with and without students (81% vs 77% consultation lasting 6 - 21 minutes, p=0.15), in the GP’s self-reported ability to effectively manage the presenting problem (95% vs 96%, p=0.43), in time patient spent in waiting room (p=0.57); patient satisfaction with ability to talk feely (96% vs 91%, p=0.06), GP dealing with the presenting problem (p=0.30), and overall satisfaction with consultation (100% vs 99%, p=1.0).

A significantly higher proportion of patients without students identified issues raised with the GP as being sensitive or personal compared with patients without students (26.3% vs 12.6%, p <0.001).

The student’s learning opportunity was found to be satisfactory for a majority (n=214, 83.9%) of consultations.

Discussion and Conclusions: Our study found no significant negative impact of student presence during a GP consultation in terms of the GP’s ability to deliver care or patient satisfaction with the consultation. Take-home messages: Student presence in the GP Consultation is satisfactory for all participants - the GP, the patient and the student.