Exploring “Human Skills” through a Cinemeducation Workshop during a Health Professions Education Conference in India

Abstract

Dear Editor, The Academy of Health Professions Educators organizes the National Conference of Health Professions Educators (NCHPE) to facilitate and accelerate the diffusion of educational innovations, and experience sharing of effective teaching methods. The authors facilitated a workshop on cinemeducation (the use of movies in medical and health professions education)[1] during the 2022 conference. They have used films to explore human skills, the history of medicine, and pharmacology among other topics. PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOPS The organizers of the 13th NCHPE at Dehra Dun, India (https://hims.srhu.edu.in/nchpe-2022/), were interested in offering a preconference Cinemeducation workshop. A channel of communication was established among the workshop facilitators using both e-mail and other online applications. The first task was to delineate the scope of the workshop within the conference theme.[2] The next priority was the areas to address and design and evaluation of the interactive presentations and activities. Recently, in India, an attitude, ethics, and communication (AETCOM) module was introduced during the undergraduate medical (MBBS) program.[3] We decided to focus on the “human skills” of communication, empathy, proper attitude, and ethical behavior. We decided to start with an ice-breaking session using four short questions-the name of the person, the institution and city, one fact about them that is not widely known, and a movie that had the greatest influence on their life and why. This would be followed by an interactive session on the history of cinemeducation, important concepts, types of movies, and practical aspects of cinemeducation. The first small group activity was followed by an interactive discussion led by the third author on the use of movies in the AETCOM module. We had senior educators among the audience who had been involved in developing the module and this added to the richness of the discussion. A second movie clip activity then followed, and each group analyzed how they could use the clip during the module, the common challenges, and how these can be overcome. Table 1 provides details of the different movies from where clips were used. The layout of the room was studied. In addition to the three groups, we also required space for the facilitators and the student volunteers. The seating should be comfortable and should promote group work.Table 1: Movies from which clips were used during the workshopThe movie clips addressed the doctor–patient relationship, patient involvement in treatment decisions, a child’s right over her body, balancing the needs of a sick sibling with personal needs, patient involvement in clinical trials, restricting personal freedom to combat an infectious disease, preparation for death from cancer, a patient coming to terms with slow cognitive decline, use of unfair means during examinations, scientific clinical research, and among others. Communication between patient and nurse, a doctor and his friend, family members, a child and her lawyer, a team of researchers and public health officials, a researcher, and a formal committee was addressed. The facilitators were able to facilitate a cinemeducation workshop using existing facilities in a low-resource setting. They utilized the experience and knowledge of senior faculty participants to enrich the discussion. Yours sincerely. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.