Practicing on friends and colleagues is the only appropriate way to learn how to perform some of these difficult or painful procedures (which are very different when done on a live patient who visibly and physically reacts to pain or discomfort) instead of a plastic model). And I think most doctors would find their bedside manner improved if they had to spend some time in the hospital just like their patients.
I heard of a medical school which assigned all of their first or second year students a diagnosis -- appendicitis, or a broken limb, or heart trouble, whatever, and then had them admitted to the hospital overnight, so they could experience the exact kind of treatment they might receive as a patient with that same complaint. They were given the required tests (X-rays or lab work -- including lumbar puncture or spinal tap), prepped for surgery (including pre-op enemas, shaving, pre-op shots, etc) and the follow up treatments (follow up blood work, casting, intravenous feedings -- whatever was called for).
The young medical students were interviewed after the experience, and told reviewers that it completely changed their perceptions of what it is like to be a patient. And it changed the way they would practice medicine for the better.
They complained about the noise of the hospital corridors at night, which made it hard to sleep, of being wakened by nurses and technicians for tests and procedures at all hours when they did fall asleep, of too frequent and unnecessary procedures, such as blood tests (which had to be repeated because a first test turned up "inconclusive" or because the "admitting doctor" forgot to order it, or the technician forgot to draw sufficient amounts the first time. They learned what it felt like to be shaved in an intimate part of the body (and over the next few weeks what it felt like for the shaved spots to grow back in). They met with unsympathetic caregivers who treated them indifferently (or worse) and who were impatient with their embarrassment and discomfort during procedures. Universally the doctors-in-training reported that it made them more sympathetic to the people they were caring for, more aware of their own fears and doubts about the unknown, and more cautious about ordering too many tests or procedures unless they were truly necessary.
This strikes me as a great way to insure that our medical personnel learn more than textbook wisdom in their medical school years, and learn to spend just a little more time with patients -- explaining what is being done, why, and how the patient can work with the medical team to achieve the best possible outcome. I wish more doctors took the time to switch places with the patients from time to time!