Which patients are most challenging for second-year medical students?

Background And Objectives: Fostering appropriate attitudes toward patients begins with recognition of the physician's personal biases and preferences about patients. We sought to assist second-year medical students to identify those patient attributes that may influence their clinical behavior, especially in difficult patient encounters. This study's objectives were (1) to identify the principal patient characteristics reported by students to evoke negative or positive affective reactions sufficient to compromise the quality of patient care and (2) to examine differences between male and female students on these patient characteristics.