Safeguard or mollycoddle? An exploratory study describing potentially harmful incidents during medical student placements in Aboriginal communities in Central Australia.

Objective: To assess the number and characteristics of potentially harmful incidents occurring during placement of medical students in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Design, Participants And Setting: A retrospective audit of medical students' files from Northern Territory General Practice Education placements in Central Australia for the period from January 2006 to December 2007.

Main Outcome Measures: Number and type of potentially harmful incidents.

Results: A total of 163 placements were undertaken. Of these, 98 (60%) had adequate documentation to determine whether an incident had occurred. There were 28 cases (17%) where potentially harmful incidents were judged to have occurred. Most incidents fell under several descriptive categories, but clinical supervision, professional practice and administrative issues were most common.

Conclusions: One in six students experienced a potentially harmful incident during remote area placement in 2006-2007. While acknowledging the exploratory nature of this investigation and the major educational benefits that clearly arise from these placements, our findings indicate problems with clinical supervision and administration.