Ethical way of taking history from a patient with a classical case

This is to all the doctors and medical students in the world, let's go back to the days of your medical school...

I joined Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital in 2013 and in the last 4 years I have had the privilege of interacting with two good conditions on two separate occasions.

One was Dr Michael Glynn, Consulting Physician, Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Barts Health NHS trust England. He is also the co-editor of Hutchinson's clinical methods.

And the other one was Dr Ravi Ramakantan, Director of the department of Radiology at Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai.

On two separate occasions of a guest lecture students asked them the question ie:
" When we medical students go to take cases to the clinical wards, we see that lots of medical students gather around the same patient who generally has a good classical history and examination findings and they fail to see the discomfort and inconvenience they are causing to the patient. This is especially true before the practical exams. How do we prevent this or decrease the agony to the patient?"

Frankly speaking this is a very difficult situation. But the two vastly contrasting answers and I got from these two clinicians, has been etched in my mind.

Dr Michael firstly agreed that it is indeed a very difficult situation. He suggested that may be a first person can take a video while the other person is taking a history and eliciting examination findings, and the other person can see the video although he pointed out that watching the video will not be as much educational as taking the history first hand.

However Dr Ravi Ramakantan said, you can go and talk to the patient and develop a special bond with him. You should show the patient how much do you care for him. Of course it is an art to engage with the patient. But once you succeed in doing that the patient with himself or herself tell you the agony that he faces and will allow you to examine him/her.

Disclaimer- these are personal first hand accounts. I thought that sharing these answers with everyone we help thousands of medical students who are facing the same problem. It is in the interest of the students as well as the patient that I have written this. I may not have perfectly reproduced the words and the sentences spoken by them and this is just my interpretation of the same.

In a way, both the answers show the empathy that is needed. The first one tells you should not go ahead when the patient is not at ease. The second answer asks you to understand the same pain that the patient is going through and wait is a patient is ready.

We medical students, still have a lot to learn from the stalwarts of our own institutions, in the field of medicine.