Theatre: An innovative teaching tool integrated into core undergraduate medical curriculum

• Published in: Arts & health Vol. 6; no. 3; pp. 191 - 204
• Main Authors: D'Alessandro, Paul Robert, Frager, Gerri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 02.09.2014; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Empathy; Graduate students; innovation; Innovations; medical education; medical students; Medicine; Theater; theatre
• ISSN: 1753-3015; 1753-3023
• DOI: 10.1080/17533015.2013.822398

Background: Ed's Story: The Dragon Chronicles is a verbatim play based on the journal of a 16-year-old with advanced cancer and transcripts from 25 interviews conducted after his death with his family, friends and health care team. After cross-country performances directed at health professionals and the general public, a viewing was incorporated into core undergraduate medical curriculum at our institution. We collected and compared responses of trainees who viewed the play voluntarily in extra-curricular settings and those who viewed a mandatory curriculum performance. Methods: Trainees completed confidential, online surveys within one year of viewing. A total of 46 trainees from five Canadian medical schools completed surveys after voluntary extra-curricular viewings (60.9% female, 39.1% male, mean age 26.2 ± 3.2 years). Of 84 eligible second-year medical students, 60 students completed surveys after mandatory curricular viewing (68.3% female, 31.7% male, mean age 26.0 ± 2.9 years, response rate 71.4%). Results: In both cohorts, a majority of trainees agreed that the play was a good learning experience (84.8%, 93.3%), should be experienced by all medical students (75.5%, 84.5%) and taught lessons they will use in their careers (71.1%, 84.7%). Trainees highlighted the play's realism, the insight gained into patient experiences and that they preferred the play to other teaching modalities. A greater percentage of trainees in the mandatory curriculum cohort agreed that a viewing should be incorporated into medical curriculum (86.7% vs. 45.3%, χ 2  = 20.3, p <  0.001). Conclusions: Medical trainees responded positively to this verbatim play in both extra-curricular and curricular settings.