We conducted a randomised, controlled trial of 93 Year 3 family medicine clerkship students at our medical school between July 2003 and July 2004. The control group (n=46) practised motivational interviewing with one another and the intervention group (n=47) practised with standardised patients trained in motivational interviewing for smoking cessation. At the end of the study all the students conducted an interview with a different standardised patient that was videotaped