Potential availability of patients in a short stay ward for medical student teaching

The trend towards shorter hospital in-patient stays has decreased the availability of patients for undergraduate medical student teaching. We surveyed 100 consecutive short stay surgical inpatients admitted to hospital on the day of planned operation to determine whether they might be available for student teaching before surgery. We found that there was a median delay of three hours (standard deviation +/-2.3 hours) between the completion of all medical and nursing procedures and the departure of the patient for the operating theatre. All patients were asked if they would agree in principle to participate in student teaching. 98 per cent said they would be willing to be taught upon. We argue that surgical patients attending the short stay ward are a valuable potential source of teaching material.