conducted a combined quantitative and qualitative study of low back pain patients' interaction with and perception of consultations and identified five key features of the 'good back-consultation' [9].
In the future we hope to investigate how student perceptions of consultation skills training overall from the annual evaluation change over time.
We failed to find any relationship between morale as measured by the overall MAGPI score and doctor-level patient perceptions of consultation communication or patient enablement.
The evidence of a mismatch between clinicians' and patients' perceptions of consultations echoes findings from other secondary care settings, notably in rheumatology clinics [ 45].
These include a reliance on what is coded by the general practice, which may be different to the patient's perception of the consultation, and indeed may not reflect the entire content of a consultation.
Consumerism is more prevalent among surgeons and is associated with encouraging patients to look for information on their own, but has no statistical association with perception of sufficient consultation time.
However, previous studies have identified the problems GPs have in managing consultations and sickness certification for back pain, including for example the balance of maintaining the doctor-patient relationship whilst challenging patients' expectations and perceptions of the consultation [ 7, 8].
31 While previous research has investigated associations between age, gender and ethnicity of the patient and their expression of trust in a doctor, the relative contribution and interaction of these variables with patient perceptions of the consultation remain unknown.
In this article we present the findings of a cross-sectional evaluation study which aimed to evaluate medical students' perceptions of the consultation skills teaching sessions on a five year undergraduate MB/BS (Degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) programme at a new medical school.
Observation notes, patient, interpreter and physiotherapist interview data will be transcribed and analysed using critical discourse analysis, supported by qualitative data analysis software NVIVO version 10, to explore views on the consultation, perceptions of involvement in decision making and the use of the Option Grid.
