Medical educators' perception of communication training with simulated patients: an explorative study approach.

Educators' perception of relevance and realism of SP training increases with teaching experience. This appears to be influenced by factors such as internal or external status of the educator, personal experience with communication training during medical studies, as well as medical field taught. Communication training with SP is valued highly by medical educators mainly because of its versatility and broad spectrum of applicability. The wide range of application of SP in medical education seems most evident to senior educators because of their increased amount of experience with physician-patient interaction, whereas junior educators appear often hindered by the aspect of simulation caused by the thought that the patients are "merely" actors.