Perceptions of patients and medical students towards each other in the setting of patient care—a South African perspective

Introduction South Africa urgently needs more doctors. We examined perceptions of patients and students to provide evidence for optimum student-patient ratios and substantiate solutions for this dilemma. Methods We interviewed 118 patients and invited 120 students to complete a self-administered questionnaire from four specialities in an academic hospital in Johannesburg. Results The total sample size was 238 participants. A total of 91/118 (77%) patients and 78/120 (65%) students were female. Almost all the patients had some level of education, with most patients having received at least a secondary education (71/120). More than half of the students (69/120) were final year students. A third (41/118) of the patients were unaware they were admitted to a teaching hospital. Half of the patients (60/118) thought they had the right to refuse interaction with students. Patients and students preferred smaller groups of between 1–3 and 4–8 students at a bedside tutorial ( p