Skills for practising law in relation to medicine | Reported levels of confidence (% respondents) | |||||
Not confident/some confidence % | Fairly/very confident % | |||||
1st years N=543 | 2nd years N=279 | Final years N=332 | 1st years N=543 | 2nd years N=279 | Final years N=332 | |
Identifying legal rules in Acts, regulations and guidance | 91 | 94 | 88 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
Applying these legal rules to cases (p<0.05) | 88 | 91 | 92 | 12 | 9 | 8 |
Recording according to standards laid out in guidance and case law (p<0.05) | 87 | 87 | 82 | 13 | 13 | 18 |
Report writing according to standards laid out in guidance | 88 | 91 | 85 | 12 | 9 | 15 |
Managing the relationship between law and medical ethics | 78 | 84 | 81 | 22 | 16 | 19 |
Managing the relationship between the law and professional guidelines | 83 | 90 | 81 | 17 | 10 | 19 |
Making decisions—when, why and how to act, using legal powers and duties | 84 | 90 | 87 | 16 | 10 | 13 |
Consulting lawyers | 84 | 86 | 88 | 16 | 14 | 12 |
Assessing risk and needs | 76 | 82 | 78 | 24 | 18 | 22 |
Using the law to advocate for patients (p<0.05) | 87 | 88 | 80 | 13 | 12 | 20 |
Using the law to protect patients | 78 | 84 | 81 | 22 | 16 | 19 |
Working in partnership with patients, service users and carers (p<0.05) | 72 | 75 | 65 | 28 | 25 | 35 |
Using legal and positional authority in an anti-oppressive way | 86 | 83 | 86 | 14 | 17 | 14 |
Maximising people's rights | 75 | 79 | 75 | 25 | 21 | 25 |
Challenging your hospital/practice's interpretation of the relevant legal position/rules in a case (p<0.01) | 91 | 92 | 96 | 9 | 8 | 4 |
Challenging other organisations in their interpretation of the law | 94 | 94 | 95 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
Using legal powers when this is clearly against the wishes of patients | 94 | 95 | 97 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
Preparation for and working in courtroom settings | 97 | 96 | 98 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Perceptions which changed statistically significantly over time are shown in bold.