The acceptance of medical students by women with gynaecology appointments.

Objectives: To determine the proportion of women unwilling to see medical students for their upcoming gynaecologic appointments and to determine whether information about medical student training could influence their decisions.

Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to 1230 women with outpatient gynaecology specialist appointments. The women were asked if they would be willing to see a medical student at their upcoming appointment. Those who declined were asked to indicate the reason(s) for their decision. After reading the survey's information section on medical students, patients who initially rejected student involvement were asked if they would reconsider. Mean differences were analyzed with t tests and associations with Fisher exact tests.

Results: Thirty percent (367/1230) of the surveys were returned and analyzed. The mean age was 48.4 years (range 17-90). Fifty-three percent (189/358) reported a positive past experience with medical students, and 7% (25/358) reported a negative past experience. Twenty-six percent (96/367) indicated that they would not be willing to be seen by a medical student. Sixty-three percent (60/96) did not wish to have a gynaecologic examination performed by a student. One-third (32/96) identified this as a concern particularly if the examination involved a male student. After reading the information section of the survey, 17% (16/96) of the respondents who initially indicated they were unwilling to see a medical student indicated that they would reconsider. Those who would reconsider were younger than those who remained unwilling (mean age 41.9 vs. 52.1 years, P= 0.045).

Conclusion: The information about medical students embedded in our survey positively influenced one in six unwilling patients to reconsider and accept medical students as part of their health care team.