Do simulated patients improve communication skills?

What is it about?

Using simulated patients (SPs) as a teaching and learning strategy provides authentic experiences for students but is resource intensive. We found that providing repeat SP interview opportunities resulted in only modest improvement in communication skills for most students. The students who benefitted most were those who performed the most poorly at baseline.

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Why is it important?

Our findings show that using simulated patients for teaching communication skills to pre-clinical students may not be the most economical method in terms of the time, costs and resources involved considering the modest student skill improvement observed.