Patients and accompanying persons??? opinions and satisfaction with consultations in the presence of medical students in the city of Santos, Brazil

Abstract

Mariana Belmonte, Yara Dadalti Fragoso

The World Health Organization recommends that medical schools should give students the opportunity to learn in real-life clinical scenarios. For this to be successful and at the same time maintain ethical standards, it is imperative to understand and respect patients’ needs and requirements during consultations. Although some studies have broached this issue, it is not common for studies to assess the opinion of accompanying persons who attend the consultation with the patient, or the opinion of medical students. The present study assessed the opinions of 150 patients, 80 accompanying persons and 80 medical students. The patients were usually satisfied with the presence of students, but emphasized the need for appropriate clothes, hygiene and behavior. Although 83.7% of the medical students were aware that a written “Students’ Code of Ethics” exists, only 6.2% of them could cite any information from this code. Results like these are not unusual, and medical schools should invest more time in teaching ethics and bioethics to medical students throughout the course.