Factors influencing medical student participation in an obstetrics and gynaecology clinic.

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors influencing medical student participation in an obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN) setting. METHODS: This was a cross sectional study carried out on patients admitted in OBGYN wards of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 250 patients consented to participate in this study. RESULTS: Eighty three percent of the people responded 'yes' to the question of being initially seen by a medical student. People who consented were 3.5 times more likely to know that their primary consultant was a teacher at a medical school i.e. they were initially aware that they were in a teaching hospital (p-value < 0.01). Additionally, people who did consent were 3.5 times more likely to have been admitted because of labour/delivery (p-value < 0.001) and 2.7 times more likely to have a monthly income of more than Rs. 20,000 (p-value < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A number of factors have been identified in our study along with proposed solutions. Identification of these potentially modifiable factors in the medical student-patient interaction is important to improve the involvement of medical students in the care of the patients.