Patient experience of examination by doctors preparing for PACES
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What is the experience of patients being examined by junior doctors for the purpose of preparing for medical postgraduate examinations?
IRAS ID
238682
Contact name
Ewen Cameron
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 2 days
Research summary
Hospital inpatients are often asked to be examined for educational purposes by junior doctors preparing for postgraduate examinations such as the ‘Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills’ (PACES) organised by the Royal College of Physicians. Junior doctors sitting PACES will commonly revise together by assessing each others’ clinical examination of hospital inpatients. During PACES the clinical examination lasts six minutes and patients are required to be silent and passive and this format is usually mirrored during preparation sessions.
Teaching is an inherent part of publicly funded health activity and patients should expect to be involved in this as part of their admission, however the examination comes at the cost of the patient’s time and can occasionally be uncomfortable, physically tiring or embarrassing. There is the potential for patients to feel they are being used without appropriate appreciation or that they feel coerced into being examined if the junior doctors are directly or indirectly involved in their care.
Without an understanding of the experience of patients and the meaning they ascribe to it, it is impossible to properly obtain consent from patients. This research project aims to answer the question: “what is the experience of hospital inpatients undergoing clinical examination by junior doctors for the purpose of preparing for PACES?” with the purpose of informing the practice of junior doctors in future with particular regards to consent. The project would be a phenomenological analysis using interviews lasting 15-120 minutes following their clinical examination. It would aim to recruit 4-10 patients over the course of two months. Thematic analysis would be performed on data obtained to understand patients' experiences and results would be used to form a dissertation for a Masters in Clinical Education by Student 1 (Ewen John Cameron) and also published in an education journal.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/EE/0038
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion