BMC Family Practice journal

A psychological training evaluation

Quoting relevant section:-

15 general practitioners, 12 general practice registrars and 18 medical students participated in an adolescent health education workshop followed by field experience in health education sessions in secondary schools.

An innovative feature was the use of young actors.
Six young people from a local youth theatre group participated in the workshop in three different training techniques.

1. Role plays. The young actors underwent intensive
   training to prepare them to participate as “school
   students” in role-plays, which simulated the school
   environments in which the GPs would conduct their
   health education sessions. The young actors were
   trained not only to act as school students, but also
   in techniques for giving constructive feedback and
   coaching to the GPs in the role-plays. Numerous
   studies have identified the effectiveness of role-play
   techniques and simulated practice in enhancing
   the communication and consulting skills of
   doctors and other health professionals in the
   clinical setting [21–23].
2. Lesson planning. Participants collaborated in
   teaching teams to prepare lesson plans for a health
   education session in a local high school, providing
   participants with clear learning outcomes from the
   workshop that were then applied in an authentic
   context. One young actor was allocated to each
   teaching team and contributed to the design of the
   lesson plans and teaching strategies for the school
   health education sessions.
3. Panel discussion. The young actors discussed
   adolescent health issues and concerns with the
   group and fielded questions from the group about
   their perspectives on adolescent health and barriers
   and enablers to access to GP services.