title: Factors influencing obstetric and gynecologic patients' decisions toward medical student involvement in the outpatient setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to determine the reasons for obstetric and gynecologic patients' acceptance or refusal of medical student participation in their outpatient care.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study of 180 patients at the University of California, San Francisco, was done to identify factors involved in patient acceptance or refusal of medical student participation in their outpatient obstetric-gynecologic visit. Responses were analyzed by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests for rank order tests of factors involved in the decision to accept or decline medical student participation and chi(2) or Fisher exact tests for comparison of data among different groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reasons for accepting medical student involvement included the desire to contribute to the training of future physicians and the desire for the highest standard of care. Reasons for refusing medical student involvement included the protection of patient privacy and the low comfort level with the examination. The acceptance rate for medical students during the obstetric visits was 89.1%, and that during the gynecologic visits was 81.4%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Private faculty patients, as well as Medicaid patients, have a high acceptance of both male and female medical students in the obstetric-gynecologic outpatient setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of California Medical Center at San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gates
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Robertson
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000193:education*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D013337:Students, Medical