Remaining Human: Using Literature and Cinema to Teach Professionalism

Remaining Human: Using Literature and Cinema to Teach Professionalism

Academic Year:
2015 - 2016 (June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2016)
Funding Requested:
$6,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
Professionalism is a core competency of graduate medical education. Skills include a commitment to practicing professional behaviors, adherence to ethical principles and sensitivity to diverse patient populations. Many programs lack well-defined professionalism curriculums. Intense emotional clinical training can result in an inability to treat the patient as a person. Cinema and literature are novel tools that can provoke emotions and reflective discussion about personal behavior, human interaction and cultural sensitivity. Engaged learning outcomes using these methods have not been widely studied. I would like to investigate the effectiveness of using a book and movie club to improve the following professionalism skills among graduate medical learners: learner and patient communication, learner and medical team communication, learner sensitivity to cultural and personal values in patient decision-making and upholding the ethical standards of the profession. Methodology includes bimonthly discussions about a book or movie that models a professionalism topic. Participants consist of neonatal-perinatal physician learners and faculty mentors who meet outside the hospital environment. Using the flipped classroom ideology, they will review the material and answer reflective questions in a journal prior to each session. After guided discussion, participants will reflect on what they learned and how it can be applied in practice. Faculty, medical team, patient and learner clinical evaluations, journal entries, patient safety reports and ACGME Milestone evaluations will be quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed for improvement in communication skills, cultural intelligence and adherence to professional standards. These results will assist in understanding the best educational methods to use to teach professionalism.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

The objectives of the project were to determine whether a book/movie club will improve communication skills and cultural sensitivity among physician learners.

Project Achievements:

This project allowed for development of a new unique method to teach physician learners about professionalism. It fostered comradery among the participants that did not previously exist. The "club" allowed the physician learners to see each other as people rather then "fellows" or "faculty". Our fellowship program has embraced the "clubs" and is planning on continuing them as a formal part of the professionalism curriculum.

Continuation:
This project is continuing beyond the grant period. I successfully implemented six book and movie clubs over the past year. Data from all pre/post questionnaires and reflective writings for each club have been collected. I am analyzing the collected qualitative and quantitative data this fall. The rest of the grant funding will be used to support data analysis, provide electronic storage for the books/movies for future use and travel support for dissemination of results.
Dissemination:
I plan on submitting an abstract to an internal research symposium and the either the Pediatric Academic Societies or AAMC meeting. I also plan to publish the outcomes of this project as well as submit the "club format" as a curriculum to MedEd Portal.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Factors that facilitated the success of this project included supportive leaders within my Division who were willing to try something new. The funding provided by the grant allowed me to purchase the necessary items for the project that our program would otherwise have not been able to support.

Source URL: https://crlt.umich.edu/node/87051