Dealing with difficult sexual questions during consultations: a new training program

For over 30 years gynecological teaching associates have made a valuable contribution to undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, by allowing medical students to perform a pelvic examination on them. These women are skilled in giving detailed feedback to the medical students about their examination performance. In this study we describe a new training program: gynecological teaching associates act as simulated patients portraying a gynecological/sexual problem, in addition to allowing themselves to be examined by the students. This creates the opportunity of immediate feedback on the entire process of the consultation. Conditions are addressed that should be met to ensure the feasibility of this method.