Patient experiences of participation in a medical student teaching workshop.

Objectives: To investigate the motivations for and experiences of patients who actively participate in a workshop to teach medical students about chronic disease.

Design: Descriptive study using structured telephone or e-mail-based questionnaire exploring the views of 'patient tutors' who participate in a 'living with chronic disease' workshop.

Participants: 'Patient tutors' with a chronic medical condition who had participated in at least one 'living with chronic disease' workshop for medical students at Oxford University Medical School.

Results: Patient motivating factors can be divided into two groups, direct benefits such as companionship or improved knowledge of their condition, and a teaching role involving an altruistic desire to give something back, and wanting to educate the doctors of the future. Importantly, most patients participated multiple times over a number of years despite no remuneration for their time other than expenses.

Conclusions: Patients appear highly motivated to educate medical students about chronic disease, due to a combination of personal benefits and an altruistic desire to 'give something back'. This suggests that they present an invaluable and currently undermobilized resource for the future of medical education.