Teaching professionalism with the aid of trigger films

Abstract

Medical professionalism includes expert knowledge, self-regulation and fiduciary responsibility to place the needs of patients ahead of the self-interest of physicians. In teaching medical professionalism to our medical students only the behavioural elements are dealt with. One of the challenges facing medical educators today is how medical professionalism can be taught. At the authors' faculty of medicine brief videotapes (trigger films) of amateur actor physician-patient encounters in various clinical settings (taken from genuine encounters) are used as a stimulus for discussion and instruction of medical professionalism. A series of 16 trigger films has been produced that raise many medical professional issues. The films and the issues raised are described in brief. These trigger films are viewed by small groups of medical students together with a physician tutor facilitator at various stages of their studies. It is noteworthy how fast the transition occurs in students, from observing the trigger films in their pre-clinical stage as a client, to observing them in their clinical years from the angle of a provider; from identifying with the patient's concerns to identifying with the physicians' behaviour; from being a critical person to becoming a person who accepts the rules and regulations of the guild. Most probably the power of the teaching of ethical and professional rules is overruled by the power of everyday clinical experience during their clinical clerkships. It is planned to run a series of trigger film sessions with senior and junior physicians of the major clerkships, in an attempt to promote an institutional environment/atmosphere/culture of professional behaviour.