Sayed-Hassan et al.

BMC Medical Education 2012, 12:13

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/12/13

RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

Patient attitudes towards medical students at

Damascus University teaching hospitals
Rima M Sayed-Hassan1*, Hyam N Bashour2 and Abir Y Koudsi3

Abstract
Background: The cooperation of patients and their consent to involve medical students in their care is vital to
clinical education, but large numbers of students and lack of experience as well as loss of privacy may evoke
negative attitudes of patients, which may sometimes adversely affect the clinical teaching environment. This study
aimed to explore the attitudes of patients towards medical students at Damascus University hospitals, and to
explore the determinants of those attitudes thus discussing possible implications applicable to clinical teaching.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at three teaching hospitals affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine
at Damascus University. Four hundred patients were interviewed between March and April 2011 by a trained
sociologist using a structured questionnaire.
Results: Of the patients interviewed, 67.8% approved the presence of medical students during the medical
consultation and 58.2% of them felt comfortable with the presence of students, especially among patients with
better socio-economic characteristics. 81.5% of the patients agreed to be examined by students in the presence of
the supervisor, while 40.2% gave agreement even in the absence of the supervisor. Privacy was the most important
factor in the patients’ reticence towards examination by the students, whilst the relative safety and comfort if a
supervisor was available determined patients’ agreement.
Conclusions: The study concluded overall positive attitudes to the medical students’ involvement in medical
education. However, it is essential that students and clinical supervisors understand and adhere to professional and
ethical conduct when involving patients in medical education.

Background consent, patients can and should now choose whether

Clinical teaching is central to medical student education to have medical students present during their consulta-
[1,2]. Contact with patients remains a vital component tions. However, conflict can arise between the educa-
in the education of medical students. Encounters with tional requirements of medical students and the needs
patients can promote contextual and clinical learning, of the patients [5,6].
improve communication and professional skills and One of the earliest studies conducted at the University
initiate the development of a future doctor-patient rela- of Manchester in 1974 showed that 40% of patients do
tionship [3]. Patients’ willingness to cooperate and con- not like to discuss family problems, sexual or anxiety
tribute to the education and training of medical disorders in the presence of medical students [7]. A
students provide better teaching opportunities for stu- number of later studies in a variety of settings and spe-
dents at most levels of patient care [3,4]. cialties have shown that patients are willing to partici-
Modern healthcare consumers are active participants pate in the education of medical students, and that
in choosing their care, leading to difficulty in training satisfaction is generally positive after participating in
students if patients decline their involvement. With undergraduate medical education [8-11], citing reasons
increased focus on patients’ rights and informed such as a desire to contribute to medical education, the
extra time presenting physicians may spend with the
* Correspondence: rimasayedhassan@gmail.com patient, and being able to increase their own knowledge
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University, about their medical problem [9-14]. Studies frequently
Damascus, Syria
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
mentioned another motive which was altruism meaning

© 2012 Sayed-Hassan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
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reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sayed-Hassan et al. BMC Medical Education 2012, 12:13 Page 2 of 8
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that patients felt good about contributing to the stu- distributed into 100 patients in Al Assad University
dent’s education [8,11,12,15]. Hospital, 175 in Al Mouassat University Hospital and
While feedback from patients is largely and generally 125 in the Maternity University Hospital. In each hospi-
positive regarding medical student participation as being tal, a systematic random sample using the admission
shown in the comprehensive review of Mol and collea- office list as to represent all patients in large units
gues [16] and this is regardless of the nature of specialty (departments) was selected. Within each department,
with little intrinsic differences between specialties another systematic random selection of patients within
[17,18], Simons and co-authors showed that 55.8% of small units (divisions) was done.
the patients had no preference regarding medical stu- The questionnaire was designed specifically for the
dent participation, while a third preferred to see the purpose of the study having consulted the medical lit-
attending physician alone [19]. Generally, studies erature of similar studies [8-11,24,28,29]. The question-
showed that there is little reluctance to students’ pre- naire was piloted on a sample of 15 patients to ensure
sence for emotional or intimate problems; expectedly, in face validity and clarity. Minor changes were made;
Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as in Genito-Urinary namely rewording two questions. Those interviews were
clinics approval of students’ involvement is reported to excluded from the analysis. The questionnaire contained
be lower [20-23]. 46 items, including demographic and socio-economic
In the Arab World, similar studies were conducted. data and patients’ attitudes toward medical students and
Despite specificities of some social and cultural aspects their preferences when involving medical students in the
in the Arab World, broad acceptance by patients to clinical examination.
medical students was noted [24-26]. Face-to-face interviews using the questionnaire were
In the absence of similar studies in Syria and with conducted by one trained sociologist to reduce potential
regard to the national efforts for quality improvement in bias in the event of data were collected by the medical
both medical education as well as health care standards, team. Interviews took place at a calm corner of wards.
it was necessary to explore the opinion of patients and The Institutional Review Board approved the study
what they felt and the degree of their comfort upon proposal and ethical considerations were respected by
examination by an unspecified number of students. Med- taking the informed consent from all patients who were
ical education in Syria is characterized by being very tra- interviewed.
ditional, with large number of students and hospital- Data were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
based education; in which clinical teaching takes place in and the statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS
the fourth to sixth years of medical training. Serious pro- (Version 17). Statistical analysis was carried out using
blems of clinical teaching at Damascus University Faculty descriptive and analytical statistics. Simple frequencies
of Medicine were documented in a recent study [27]. and cross tabulation were done. Chi square test was
This study was designed to identify the attitudes of used for proportions. ANOVA test was used to test for
Syrian patients seen at three teaching hospitals affiliated statistical significance testing when comparing means.
to Damascus University towards medical students’ pre- Stratification for the patient’s sex and educational level
sence and their comfort level during physical examina- was done when relevant. P value of less than 0.05 was
tion, their preferences regarding medical student considered statistically significant.
involvement; and to identify factors that determine
those attitudes, mainly the type of the hospital and Results
patients’ characteristics. Four hundred patients were interviewed in this study.
None of the patients approached refused to participate.
Methods General characteristics of patients recruited in the study
This is a cross-sectional study that relied on conducting sample, according to the hospital they came from, are
face-to-face interviews with a random sample of patients presented in Table 1. The average age of patients was
admitted to the three main teaching hospitals, two gen- 40.2 years (SD = 15.2), and 14.7% of them had high
eral and one maternity, affiliated to the, Damascus Uni- school or university level education. Most patients came
versity Faculty of Medicine. These three hospitals from Damascus or its surroundings (62.3%), while the
contribute to 68.5% of total number of beds in all teach- rest came from other provinces all over the country.
ing hospitals of Damascus University. This study was The table clearly shows the disparity in the characteris-
carried out during the period from beginning of March tics of patients between the three hospitals, where
to end of April 2011. patients seen at Al Assad University Hospital had better
The study recruited a sample proportional to the socio-economic characteristics (such as education,
number of beds in each hospital allowing for all specia- income) as compared to other hospitals, and the differ-
lized units. Thus the study sample included 400 patients ences were statistically significant.
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Table 1 General characteristics of patients in the study sample by hospital•

Item Al Assad University Maternity University Al Mouassat University All
Hospital (100) Hospital (125) Hospital (175) patients (400)
No (%) No (%) No (%) No (%)
Sex*
Male 61 (61) - 75 (42.9) 136 (34)
Female 39 (39) 125 (100) 100 (57.1) 264 (66)
Marital Status *
Single 14 (14.1) 5 (4.1) 43 (24.7) 62 (15.7)
Married 75 (75.8) 115 (93.5) 117 (67.2) 307 (77.5)
Divorced/Widow 10 (10.1) 3 (2.4) 14 (8) 27 (6.8)
Educational Level *
Illiterate/reads & Writes 31 (31.3) 29 (24) 62 (35.6) 122 (31)
Primary/Preparatory 36 (36.4) 78 (64.5) 100 (57.5) 214 (54.3)
Secondary/University 32 (32.3) 14 (11.6) 12 (6.9) 58 (14.7)
Age
Mean (SD) 49.6 (15.5) 31.9 (11.7) 40.7 (14.3) 40.2 (15.4)
Number of family members
Mean (SD) 5.4 (2.4) 5.9 (4.2) 7.4 (4.4) 6.4 (4)
Average monthly income (SYP)
Median 20000 13700 15000 15000
* P < 0.001
•Total might be less than 400 due to missing values

Table 2 summarizes the patients’ attitudes towards the As for results with regard to the part of the body
education of medical students which seemed generally being examined (Table 2), women in the Maternity Uni-
positive, with a statistically significant difference versity Hospital refused the examination, especially
between the hospitals. Of the patients interviewed, when parts examined are obviously sensitive for women.
67.8% approved the presence of medical students during Of all women interviewed at the Maternity University
the medical consultation, and 58.2% expressed comfort Hospital, 83.9 referred to the part from the body exam-
with the presence of medical students, and this percen- ined as being determining their acceptance versus 27.1%
tage was higher in the hospital where socially and finan- of patients seen in Al Mouassat Hospital with internal
cially better off patients were seen (70.1%). Figure 1 and surgical cases are managed. It was striking to note
shows the reasons for comfort expressed by the patients that over one-third (35.3%) of the study sample were
where the desire to get better attention if their cases aware of their right to refuse or accept the presence of
were lengthily discussed was reported to be the most medical students during the clinical encounter, and this
important reason for the comfort and satisfaction of varied largely between the hospitals to be significantly
patients while the lack of students’ experience (90.5% of lower in the hospital receiving the better educated
all causes) was the main factor for discomfort with the patients (19.2% in Al-Assad Teaching Hospital, com-
presence of students. pared to 44% in Al Mouassat Hospital).
Patients’ attitudes towards medical students are pre- Patients’ preferences regarding the teaching of medical
sented in Table 2. Of all patients, 81.5% approved to be students are shown in Table 3. Patients preferred a
examined by a medical student in the presence of a smaller number of students during the clinical round
supervisor, while 40.2% approved the examination in the (72% of patients preferred the presence of a maximum
absence of a supervisor. Figure 2 illustrates the reasons, of 9 medical students) and would prefer to be examined
where privacy seemed to be the most important factor by one or two students only (59.3%). The sex of the stu-
in patients rejecting the examination by students (83.6% dent was also an important determinant where the
of reasons for rejection). Feeling of safety and confi- majority of women seen at the Maternity Hospital
dence if a doctor is in charge was the most important would prefer that the clinical examination be done by a
factor in patients approving the examination by the stu- female medical student (59.7% in Maternity hospital vs.
dent (60.1% of the reasons for acceptance). 14.6% in Al-Assad University Hospital).
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Table 2 Patients’ attitudes towards medical students learning by hospital•

Item Al Assad University Maternity University Al Mouassat University All
Hospital (100) Hospital (125) Hospital (175) patients (400)
No (%) No (%) No (%) No (%)
Do you approve the existence of medical students during clinical encounter? *
Yes 82 (82.8) 70 (56) 118 (67.8) 270 (67.8)
No 4 (4) 32 (25.6) 23 (13.2) 59 (14.8)
Does not matter 13 (13.1) 23 (18.4) 33 (19) 69 (17.3)
Do you feel comfortable in the existence of medical students? *
Yes 68 (70.1) 64 (51.2) 99 (56.6) 231 (58.2)
No 5 (5.2) 11 (8.8) 25 (14.3) 41 (10.3)
Does not matter 24 (24.7) 50 (40.0) 51 (29.1) 125 (31.5)
Do you approve being examined by medical students under supervision? *
Yes 96 (96) 91 (72.8) 139 (79.4) 326 (81.5)
No 3 (3) 30 (24) 29 (16.6) 62 (15.5)
Does not matter 1 (1) 4 (3.2) 7 (4) 12 (3)
Do you approve being examined by medical students in the absence of supervision? *
Yes 47 (47) 27 (21.6) 86 (49.7) 160 (40.2)
No 44 (44) 94 (75.2) 79 (45.7) 217 (54.5)
Does not matter 9 (9) 4 (3.2) 8 (4.6) 21 (5.3)
Do you approve having your clinical case discussed in front of you by clinical staff and medical students?
Yes 89 (90.8) 113 (91.9) 145 (83.3) 347 (87.8)
No 8 (8.2) 9 (7.3) 27 (15.5) 44 (11.1)
Does not matter 1 (1) 1 (0.8) 2 (1.1) 4 (1)
Does the part of your body to be examined affects your approval of involving a medical student in the clinical exam? ‡
Yes 30 (30.6) 104 (83.9) 46 (27.1) 180 (45.9)
No 59 (60.2) 14 (11.3) 92 (54.1) 165 (42.1)
Does not matter 9 (9.2) 6 (4.8) 32 (18.8) 47 (12)
Do you think that you have the right to approve or disapprove the existence of medical students during the clinical encounter? * ‡
Yes 19 (19.2) 45 (36) 77 (44) 141 (35.5)
No 56 (56.6) 50 (40) 62 (35.4) 168 (42.1)
Does not know 24 (24.2) 30 (24) 36 (20.6) 90 (22.6)
* P < 0.001
‡ P < 0.05 after stratifying for sex of the patient
•Total might be less than 400 due to missing values

Discussion Hospital is less organized, and in the latter two hospitals

This study contributed to the understanding of Syrian the services are completely free of charge.
patients’ attitudes towards the involvement of medical This study also revealed reasons for which patients felt
students in clinical teaching, as reported by those seen comfortable with the presence of medical students.
at three main teaching hospitals at Damascus University. Those reasons were indeed similar to those reported in
Overall, the degree of acceptance of medical students the literature including the desire to contribute to medi-
was high, similarly to what was reported in many other cal education, the extra time spent with the patient, and
studies from developed countries [8-16] and the Arab the opportunity to learn more about their medical pro-
World [24-26]. It is worth mentioning that this trend blem [9-14,24,25]. Although the need to get patients’
was dominant in the three teaching hospitals studied consent is a must [3], our study unfortunately revealed
despite the different socio-economic characteristics of that patient consent is simply absent as more than two-
their patients. It is worthy to note that Al Assad Hospi- thirds of patients were indeed unaware of their rights to
tal received patients referred from governmental and refuse or accept the active involvement of the medical
some private establishments while the service provided students. O’Flynn and colleagues reported that 28% of
at Al Mouassat University Hospital and the Maternity patient thought that they did not have a choice about
Sayed-Hassan et al. BMC Medical Education 2012, 12:13 Page 5 of 8
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Figure 1 Reasons reported by patients for their comfort or discomfort with medical students’ involvement.

Figure 2 Reasons reported by patients for approving or disapproving clinical exams by medical students under supervision.
Sayed-Hassan et al. BMC Medical Education 2012, 12:13 Page 6 of 8
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Table 3 Patients’ preferences with regard to medical students learning by hospital

Item All patients Al Mouassat University Maternity University Al Assad University
(400) Hospital (175) Hospital (125) Hospital (100)
No (%) No (%) No (%) No (%)
Do you prefer to be examined by? * ‡
Medical student with same sex 124 (31.6) 36 (20.8) 74 (59.7) 14 (14.6)
as yours
No difference 236 (60.1) 121 (69.9) 36 (29) 79 (82.3)
I do not agree in all cases 33 (8.4) 16 (9.2) 14 (11.3) 3 (3.1)
What is your preferred number of students to exist during clinical consultation? * ‡
Nil 4 (1) 3 (1.7) 1 (0.8) - (-)
1-3 58 (14.6) 36 (20.8) 16 (12.8) 6 (6.1)
4-8 224 (56.4) 94 (54.3) 82 (65.6) 48 (48.5)
9 or more 111 (28) 40 (23.1) 26 (20.8) 45 (45.5)
What is your preferred number of students to examine you during clinical consultation? * ‡
Nil 107 (26.8) 71 (40.6) 29 (23.2) 7 (7)
1-2 237 (59.3) 80 (45.7) 92 (73.6) 65 (65)
3-5 43 (10.8) 18 (10.3) 3 (2.4) 22 (22)
6 or more 13 (3.3) 6 (3.4) 1 (0.8) 6 (6)
Do you prefer to have the clinical examination by the medical students? * ‡
At the same time 138 (35.8) 56 (32.4) 47 (40.9) 35 (36.1)
One visit by a group 23 (6) 8 (4.6) 6 (7.8) 6 (6.2)
Frequent visits by students 73 (19) 20 (11.6) 24 (20.9) 29 (29.9)
Does not matter 151 (39.2) 89 (51.4) 35 (30.4) 27 (27.8)
* P < 0.001
‡ P < 0.05 after stratifying for sex of the patient
•Total might be less than 400 due to missing values

student presence and participation [13], while Abdul- expressed a preference for students of their same sex
ghani and colleagues reported that 45.1% of patients and refused male students. This is a pattern that one
believed that they had not the right to refuse medical would expect more in largely Muslim country such as
students [24]. The study of Chipp and colleagues Syria [26]. Of great interest in this work is that differ-
showed that 89% of patients admitted that they would ences in attitudes were not only related to the sex of the
expect to have their permission sought before seeing a patients but was also related to their educational level
student [30]. This issue is very critical, as the need to and socio-economic characteristics, which were evident
humanize the medical education is very evident, espe- even after stratifying for patient sex. This is contrary to
cially in settings such as ours where patients are the the study of Shah-Khan and colleagues in Chicago that
main educational “tools,” since clinical skills lab was not found no relationship between the economic level or
introduced until quite recently. Inpatients at hospitals degree of educational attainment and the degree of
are mainly used for clinical teaching while outpatients satisfaction of patients [31].
are very rarely involved. Our study also reported patients’ preferences with
It was of interest to find that feeling of safety and regard to the scale of medical students’ involvement
comfort is indeed correlated to the presence of a super- such as the number of students around the bed during
visor. This is largely due to the lack of awareness of the the clinical consultation; as well as with regard to the
extent of students’ involvement. This finding is consis- desirable number of students actually examining the
tent with other studies [22-25]. On the other hand, priv- patient. Sweeney and colleagues suggested that it is the
acy was the main reason behind patients discomfort duty of supervising professor to be aware of the patients’
with Students’ involvement. preference taking into accounts the fears and concerns
We analyzed our results as to show the differences [29]. Our study highlighted the importance of respecting
between the three hospitals when again findings on the patients’ preferences especially in a context where
women seen at the Maternity University hospital was in those are far from the ideal environment of clinical
agreement with other studies [20,22], where all women teaching. In our faculty, we face the dilemma of large
Sayed-Hassan et al. BMC Medical Education 2012, 12:13 Page 7 of 8
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number of students with small groups as large as 40 stu- Received: 2 November 2011 Accepted: 22 March 2012
Published: 22 March 2012
dents at each point of time.
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doi:10.1186/1472-6920-12-13
Cite this article as: Sayed-Hassan et al.: Patient attitudes towards
medical students at Damascus University teaching hospitals. BMC
Medical Education 2012 12:13.

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