Consent to medical student teaching: an observational, cross-sectional study exploring the patient view
Research
Niki Newman, Fraser McKenzie, Jonathan M. Wells, Tim Wilkinson, John Dean, Matthew Doogue, Lutz Beckert
BMC Medical Education, 24 December 2024
Open Access
Abstract
Background
New Zealand guidelines stipulate that patient consent is obtained for medical student involvement in clinical care, however, patients’ preferences regarding consent for medical student teaching have not been widely explored. This study examined patient preferences for consent for medical student teaching with the aim to increase patient empowerment, to optimise care and to reflect societal expectations more accurately.
Method
Observational, semi-qualitative, cross-sectional study of in-patients. Each participant was presented with a series of nine hypothetical clinical scenarios and were allowed a limited number of responses. For each scenario the participants completed a short questionnaire about their preferences for consent. These included their preferred mode of consent (implicit, verbal or written), timing of consent, and who should take their consent. The analysis used descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression mixed models to investigate associations between patient characteristics and chosen mode of consent.
Results
There were 123 participants (50% male), median age was 64 years. Patients were admitted to either medical (69%), surgical (22%) or women’s health (9%). Increasing age was statistically significantly associated with a preference for verbal and implicit rather than written consent with the exception of ‘breaking bad news’ and ‘bedside teaching’. The majority of patients preferred verbal consent across all nine clinical scenarios (57–82%), including two surgical scenarios where verbal consent was preferred by 59%. Most patients preferred the supervising doctor to take consent, with no clear preference about the timing.
Conclusions
This study identifies the patient voice in the consent process for the involvement of medical students in clinical care. Although the patients’ views generally align with an existing national consensus statement, there is variability in the expectations of the patients suggesting flexibility in the consent process is still needed. The preference for older patients for verbal or implicit consent compared with younger patients for more invasive scenarios highlights the need for consideration of inter-generational differences. Most patients in this study were willing to contribute to student learning in all scenarios.

The German Medical Informatics Initiative Broad Consent in the Emergency Department: A Single Centre Prospective Observational Study to Assess Consenting Mode Dependent Success Rates
Felix Patricius Hans, Jan Kleinekort, Melanie Boerries, Alexandra Nieters, Gerhard Kindle, Micha Rautenberg, Laura Bühler, Gerda Weiser, Michael Clemens Röttger, Carolin Neufischer, Matthias Kühn, Julius Wehrle, Anna Christine Slagman, Antje Fischer-Rosinsky, Larissa Eienbröker, Frank Hanses, Gisbert Wilhelm Teepe, Hans-Jörg Busch, Leo Benning
JMIR Medical Informatics, 19 November 2024
Abstract
Background
The Broad Consent (BC) by the German Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) was developed to serve as a national blueprint for consenting patients for the use of routinely collected medical-, insurance- and contact data and biomaterials for research purposes, ensuring compliance with European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Emergency departments (EDs) are characterized by a broad and unselected patient population that provides the opportunity to include patients from different demographic and socioeconomic groups, as well as from different disease groups. While also posing regulatory and ethical challenges, obtaining BC in an ED environment presents a promising opportunity to increase the availability of ED data for research.
Objective
This study aimed to evaluate the success rate of obtaining BC through different consenting approaches in a tertiary ED. The study also explored factors influencing consent and dropout rates.
Methods
A single-center prospective observational study was conducted in a German tertiary ED from September to December 2022. Patients were randomly selected (every 30th patient) and screened for eligibility to be informed about BC. Eligible patients were informed through one of three modalities: (a) directly in the ED, (b) during inpatient stay on the ward, or (c) via telephone after discharge. The primary outcome was the success rate of obtaining BC within 30 days of ED presentation. Secondary outcomes included analysis of potential influences on the success- and dropout rate concerning patient characteristics, information mode, and the interaction time applied for the information.
Results
Out of 11,842 ED visits in the study period, 419 patients were randomly screened for BC eligibility, with 151 meeting the inclusion criteria. Of these, 68 patients (45.0 %) consented to at least one BC module, while 24 (15.9 %) refused participation. The overall dropout rate was 39.1 %, with the highest dropout occurring in the telephone-based group (52.3 %) and lowest in the ED group (7.1 %). Patients who were informed face-to-face during the inpatient stay following their ED treatment had the highest consent rate (85.2 %), while those approached in the ED or by telephone consented in 69.2 %. Logistic regression analysis indicated that longer interaction time was significantly associated with higher consent rates, whereas female gender was associated with increased dropout rates. No significant differences were found between consenting and non-consenting groups concerning age, triage category, billing details (inpatient treatment), or diagnosis distribution.
Conclusions
Obtaining BC in an ED environment is feasible, and showed representative inclusion of the ED-population. However, discharge from the ED and female gender negatively influenced the odds of obtaining consent to the BC. Face-to-face interaction significantly improves consent rates and seems to be the most promising approach for consenting inpatients. Telephone-based approaches, conversely, resulted in higher dropout rates but equal consent rates as the direct consenting in the ED. The study highlights the need for tailored consent strategies, indicating a benefit to maintain staff in EDs and on wards to provide information on BC and obtain consent from eligible patients.