[01] Genevieve Leong Yim Mei, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Kong Sian Jhieh, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Sumithera a/p Gunasegaran, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Abiramy a/p Parameswaran, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [05] Hennah Darissa a/p Lazarus, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

The doctor-patient relationship is a unique relationship where professionalism, ethical principles and humanistic aspects simultaneously come together with the aim of effective therapeutic process and reaching treatment goals. A good doctor-patient relationship is considered to be an essential part of treatment, lubricating the process of achieving good treatment outcomes. The objective of the study is to determine the perception of medical students towards the physician-patient relationship, and to observe associations if any, in other variables; age, gender nationality, ethnicity, academic year, choice of specialty, familial socioeconomic status, parents education level, repeated visits to general practitioners or specialist, having first degree relative whom are doctors, participation in research teams, extracurricular activities participation as well as accommodation of students. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Muar, Johor, from November 2020 to January 2021. Purposive sampling was used to enroll the students and they were asked to respond to Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), a previously validated questionnaire via electronic survey form. The questionnaire measures the perception of medical students towards doctor-patient relationships using a 6-point Likert scale, items divided to sharing and caring domains. The analysis included frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation, (95% CI) and p value=0.05, as well as unpaired T-test and ANOVA. A total of 160 participated in this study; the mean caring subscale score were 2.9, mean sharing subscale which were 3.3. The overall Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale was 3.1, indicating a more patient-centered attitude towards the doctor-patient relationship. Sharing domain found that all variables are not significant. On the other hand, specific to caring domain, significant p value of 0.008 in choice of specialty of students and significant p value of 0.001 was seen in parent’s education level of students. Total score of PPOS regarding parent’s education shows a significant p value score of 0.004. All other variables were found to be not significant. Future research should explore the association between doctor-patient relationships and empathy, trust, language, cultural barriers and religion.

Perception, Doctor-Patient Relationship, Medical Student, Cross-sectional, Malaysia

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