Table 4 Categories of simulated (standardised) patients

   1. Volunteers (Gippsland, Imperial):

a. Play a role that is based on their own experience [36]

b. Are drawn from local community

c. Are unpaid

d. Have different levels of training in case portrayal and feedback skills

   2. Physical examination role players (Imperial, Lausanne):

a. Play a given role with minimal speaking since the focus is on assessment of students in physical examination

b. Are drawn from local community/drawn from clinical cases which showed learning obstacles for students

c. Are paid

d. Have different levels of training

   3. SPs (Gippsland, Imperial, Toronto, Lausanne):

a. Play roles in teaching, assessments and research

b. May or may not have formal acting or performance training

c. Undergo training as SPs in case portrayal and feedback skills

d. Are paid an established hourly rate