Involving patients in medical education
BMJ 2003; 327 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7410.326 (Published 07 August 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:326
- Amanda Howe, professor of primary care (amanda.howe@uea.ac.uk)1,
- Janie Anderson, specific skills academic general practice registrar2
- 1School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ
- 2Eastern Deanery
- Correspondence to: A Howe
- Accepted 6 May 2003
Patients have always been part of medical education, but we can no longer assume that they will choose to participate. The drive towards informed consent and a more equal partnership in shared decision making in clinical practice implies a need for different approaches to involving patients.1 In addition, recent reforms of medical education now use more structured and extensive patient contact,2 3 and this cannot be achieved solely through opportunistic patient contact in clinics and on wards. Using original data and background literature, we examine what is known about involving patients in medical education and suggest ways to improve learning and patient satisfaction.
Methods
Consent must be obtained from all patients before they are involved in teaching
Credit: WILL AND DENI McINTYRE/SPL
This article is based on a search of Medline and references from primary sources, using the keywords consent, patient involvement, patient participation, empowerment, medical, and clinical education and the findings of a workshop at the University of East Anglia examining best practice for involving patients in student learning. The university took its first MBBS students in October 2002. We used purposive sampling to draw participants from groups likely to have a role in involving patients in medical education. Invitations to key organisations resulted in 49 delegates, with about one third clinical staff, one third key education-alists (tutors, faculty members, etc), and one third patients or their advocates. We used focus groups to discuss the following questions:
What can we do to make the public feel positive about participating in student learning while respecting people's autonomy?
What issues must be covered as good practice when giving information about patient involvement in educational settings and when gaining consent?
How can my organisational or personal setting contribute effectively to student learning and what are thebarriers to this?
We compiled data …