Rights of patients in medical education!

The London School of Medicine has developed a policy that emphasizes on the rights of patients in medical education.8 This framework should guide both teachers and students when interacting with patients clinically. The guidelines highlight the responsibility of medical teachers to serve as role models to trainees for ethical practice and to provide trainee doctors with an opportunity to discuss an ethical or difficult situation.
Patients must understand that medical students are not qualified
doctors
• Clinical teachers and students must obtain explicit verbal consent from patients before students take their case histories or physically examine them, making sure they understand the
primarily educational purpose of their participation.
• Clinical teachers and students should never perform physical examinations or present cases that are potentially embarrassing for primarily educational purposes without the patient’s verbal consentincluding for the number of students present
• Students should never perform any physical examination on patients under general anaesthetic for primarily educational purposes without patients’ prior written consent, which should be placed in the notes.
• Clinical teachers should obtain patients’ explicit verbal consent for students to participate in treatment (suturing, taking blood, delivering babies, etc.). Procedures not requiring immediate
supervision should be undertaken only if there is recorded evidence of competence.
• Clinical teachers are responsible for ensuring that these guidelines are followed. If students are asked by anyone to do the contrary, they must politely refuse, referring to these
guidelines. Encouraging students to ignore these guidelines is unacceptable.