Identification of medical students in the clinical setting

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Identification of medical students in the clinical setting

• IRAS ID

  197738

• Contact name

  Rebecca Rooney

• Contact email

  rebecca.rooney@nbt.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  North Bristol NHS Trust

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 6 months, 22 days

• Research summary

  It is good medical practice for medical professionals to introduce themselves to their patients and this is applies equally to medical students. The national campaign “#hello my name is” promotes the verbal identification of medical staff in hospital. It is widely accepted that such an introduction is important in building a relationship with patients. However, a lot of patients and relatives rely on non-verbal clues on busy wards and clinics. It may be that, on seeing a stethoscope being worn, patients assume that they are speaking with a doctor.
  NHS trusts require all members of hospital staff to wear an identification badge with the name and a photograph. Medical schools use further methods to aid identification of their students. The University of Bristol medical students wear lanyards around their neck with the phrase medical student. The University of Birmingham medical students wear a white and green badge with their name, University of Birmingham and title medical student. There is no written rule stating that students should or should not wear stethoscopes around their neck.

  Research questions:
  1. Are patients able to identify medical students from a group of hospital staff?
  2. Does wearing a badge or a lanyard make it easier for patients to identify medical students?
  3. Does a stethoscope around the neck make it more difficult for a student to be identified?

  We propose to interview 100 patients in both North Bristol NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust where University of Bristol and University of Birmingham students are placed for clinical attachments respectively. We will ask patients to identify medical staff from a set of 12 photographs giving reasons why, followed by a short questionnaire asking their understanding of the role of a medical student in hospital.

• REC name

  Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/YH/0034

• Date of REC Opinion

  20 Jan 2016

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion