Medical Improvisation Training for all Medical Students: 3-Year Experience
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Medical Improvisation Training for all Medical Students: 3-Year Experience David Fessell 1 & Erin McKean 1 & Heather Wagenschutz 1 & Michael Cole 1 & Sally A. Santen 2 & Robert Cermak 3 & Katie Zurales 1 & Stephanie Kukora 1 & Valeri Lantz-Gefroh 4 & Evonne Kaplan-Liss 4 & Alan Alda 5
# International Association of Medical Science Educators 2019
Abstract Introduction Effective communication has been shown to improve patients’ health outcomes. This study utilizes medical improvisation techniques to teach communication skills to an entire medical school class. Methods Required workshops were held for entering third-year students from 2005 to 2017. Workshop evaluations were obtained immediately following each session and at 3 months post-workshop for one cohort. Results Four hundred ninety-four medical students participated in the improvisation workshops. Over 90% of students rated the workshops as above average or excellent. Students reported a gain in insights regarding their role as a physician (≥ 90%), an improvement in their ability to demonstrate effective communication (80–87%), and a positive impact on teamwork (91–93%). At 3 months post-workshop, 84% of students reported they had used at least 1 improvisation skill on their clinical wards (50% response rate). Conclusions This study demonstrates that medical improvisation exercises can be scaled to an entire class of medical students versus a self-selected group of students. Further, we found that students felt that it improved their communication. This study also provides new insights regarding specific improvisation exercises that are most useful for the clinical environment. Keywords Improvisation . Medical education . Communication . Teamwork . Team-based
Background Medical schools are transforming their curricula to offer students the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will prepare them for a complex and rapidly changing professional environment. These changes include how communication skills are taught and developed. The Joint Commission has noted that greater than 60% of adverse patient outcomes were related to poor communication, either between providers and patients, * David Fessell [email protected] 1
University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
2
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
3
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
4
Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine, Fort Worth, TX, USA
5
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
or between health care providers [1]. Shared decision-making, effective provider communication, and a team approach to care have also been shown to have beneficial effects on patient outcomes [2–4]. Physicians must be able to communicate with empathy, develop skills to navigate an ever-changing environment, and understand complex health care systems in order to effect positive change [2, 5]. Improvisational theater training has been advocated as an educational tool to impro
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