Forum theater staging of difficult encounters with patients to increase empathy in students: evaluation of efficacy at The University of Angers Medical School.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Physician empathy has been associated with improved clinical outcomes and lower physician burnout. We evaluated whether forum theater (FT), a form of applied drama that allows participants to enter the performance and represent the actions associated with emotions, would foster empathy in medical students, and which underlying variables would be associated to empathy scores. METHODS:Three classes totaling 488 fourth-year medical students participated in the study. Forum theater was used to explore difficult encounters with patients and family members: announcement of cancer, fall at home of an elderly person requiring hospitalization, appointment with a patient suffering from depression, announcement of diabetes in an adolescent. The first scene was played by actors in front of

SUBMITTER: Sevrain-Goideau M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7041274 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature