Assessing the attitudes and knowledge of medical students towards Patient-Centred Care across different study years: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: To determine how medical students viewed the importance of patient-doctor communication, to assess their knowledge about patient-centred care, and to compare the attitudes of medical students in their pre-clinical and clinical years of study towards patient-centred care.

Method: The cross-sectional study was conducted from April to September 2023 at Federal Medical and Dental College, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and comprised medical students of either gender from 2^nd to 5^th academic year. Data was collected using the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 27.

Results: Of the 322 students, 178(55.3%) were males and 144(44.7%) were females. The mean score was 3.60±0.47, while the sharing and caring sub-scores were 3.23±0.66 and 3.99±0.52, respectively. The attitude of students overall was slightly patient-centred. Different study years showed variance in patient-centred scores which were also affected by cultural, demographic and gender parameters (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The attitude of the students leaned slightly towards patient-oriented behaviour.

Key Words: Patient-centred care, Physician-patient relations, Students, Medical, Patient satisfaction.