Informed Consent for Clinical EducationRandomized Study of Two Different Strategies at a Urology Surgery

Abstract

To study whether or not the provision of written information in advance might influence patients' inclination to participate in the clinical education of medical students at a urology surgery. A total of 169 outpatients referred to the urological surgery were randomly allocated either to receive information in advance or not, together with a notice of appointment that all patients receive by mail approximately 2 weeks prior to their visit. Patients in the experimental group received a written information letter in advance about medical education, whereas the control patients did not receive any written information, according to the standard procedure of the surgery. The patients were not told about the study until afterwards and neither the doctors/teachers nor the students knew in advance to which group a certain patient had been allocated. At the end of the visit the patients were asked to complete a questionnaire. The randomization procedure resulted in 83 patients being informed in advance and 86 control patients not being informed. Forty-two patients completed the questionnaire: 19 in the experimental group and 23 in the control group. There was no difference between the groups with regard to reasons for dropping out. This study indicates that the provision of information in advance does not negatively influence patients' inclination to participate in the clinical training of medical students.