Objectives: The General Medical Council has recommended that medical students should gain more experience in general practice. The study set out to determine patients' reactions to consultations conducted by a medical student alone prior to seeing their GP.
Design: A random sample of patients attending general practice surgeries in the Oxford area completed a questionnaire following consultation with a medical student.
Setting: Six general practice teaching surgeries.
Subjects: Fifth-year medical students.
Results: Of 130 responders 98% experienced no disadvantage in seeing the student; 35% considered that there were advantages in seeing the student; 98% said that they would be prepared to consult with a student again; 85% expressed no concerns about the gender of the student.
Conclusions: The results of this study are very reassuring concerning the acceptability to patients of consulting with medical students and are more favourable than those reported for studies of students being present in consultations by GPs.