For many healthcare students and staff (medical/nursing/pharmacy etc) getting adequate exposure to patients with different health conditions and clinical presentations can be challenging. Peer to peer role play and consultant led teaching has it’s limitations e.g. ease of access, quality and variability of feedback, inability to train remotely, etc.
Building experience through learning and reflecting on real life patient encounters has been proven to be most effective when developing clinical skill. However often times patients with true clinical signs and varying presentations are hard to come by for students and healthcare staff.