Medical students' involvement in outpatient clinical encounters: a survey of patients and their obstetricians-gynecologists.

Purpose: To study women's prior exposure to medical students during office visits, and the association between this and other factors in the likelihood of patients consenting to medical students' involvement in obstetrical-gynecological (ob-gyn) care. Physicians also were surveyed regarding their perceptions of patients' preferences.

Method: In 1999-2000, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed for one week to all women scheduled for an ob-gyn visit and to their providers at six community campuses of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Female patients' preferences related to interpersonal communications, clinical competence, and gender when selecting a physician.

Purpose: In obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn), a physician's gender can affect patients' access to care as well as medical education curricula and career counseling. The authors focused on the importance that female patients place on various physician characteristics, and how this importance varied by patients' characteristics and compared for family practitioners, obstetrician-gynecologists, and surgeons.

Method: In 1999-2000, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed for one week to all women scheduled for an ob-gyn visit at six community campuses of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.