Patient volunteers and medical student exams
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Why do patients volunteer to take part in medical student final examinations, what is their experience like and how can their experience be improved?
IRAS ID
256109
Contact name
Louise Harmer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 0 days
Research summary
Patient volunteers and medical student exams
Medical students examine real patients and are required to show they can do so competently as part of their final examinations. Medical education relies on voluntary patient engagement for this to occur.
Investigation into patient experiences of participation and motivation to volunteer has been explored but it is more than 10 years since the last study of this type according to our literature review.
We propose to investigate if the motivations and needs of patients who volunteer to take part in undergraduate medical education and examinations have changed since the last research studies and publication of guidelines.
To find out more we will recruit and gather data from current volunteer patients in one NHS Hospital Trust during final student exams.
We aim to answer the following research questions
1. Why do patients volunteer to take part in medical student final examinations?
2. Have motivations changed since previous studies?
3. What is their experience like?
4. Which factors are important in providing a good experience?
5. Would a video demonstrating the process given before participation improve their experience?The research will involve the use of questionnaires, focus groups and possibly telephone interviews. Volunteers will be involved in the research for a minimum of 1 day up to a maximum of 1 year and three months depending on whether they take part in the first questionnaire, focus group, second questionnaire or all 3 parts. The qualitative data will be analysed using thematic content analysis and an inductive approach.
We hope that this study will improve our understanding of the motivations of the current generation of patient volunteers, what is required to provide a good experience and any improvements that can be made.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/2122
Date of REC Opinion
4 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion