Effectiveness Of Cinemeducation As A Tool To Impart Soft Skills Among First-Year MBBS Students

Abstract

Background/ objectives: Improvement in soft skills is linked with effective healthcare system, improved patient satisfaction, and decreased conflicts. Cinemeducation is a relatively newer tool of imparting soft skills in medical education wherein movie or movie clips are used to initiate discussions and reflections, as a part of active learning process. Cinema is the audio visual (AV) version of storytelling. Life stories and narratives enhance emotions and therefore set up the foundation for conveying concepts. Movies provide a narrative model framed in emotions that are grounded in the students familiar everyday universe. Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of cinemeducation as a tool to impart soft skills in Ist MBBS Students.

Methodology: We conducted a session among the MBBS 1st Professional students. 176 students participated in the study, where some clips from the movie “The Doctor (1991)” were shown to them to understand empathy in medical practice. The session was conducted in a group setting and involved brainstorming, creating useful ideas, and sharing perspectives from scenes and characters in movie from different perspectives.  Students wrote the feedback after watching the movie clip. Data analysis was done.

Results:  Feedback was taken from 176 students. 83 of them said experience with cinemeducation was satisfactory. 86 said cinemeducation stimulated their interest in learning professionalism. 94 said they were able to understand empathy better through cinemeducation. 99 asked for similar sessions in the future. Reflection writing analysis showed that the students knowledge and understanding improved significantly after the session.

Conclusion: The student’s knowledge improved significantly after the session on cinemeducation. Reflective writing by the students shows that cinemeducation can be used as one of the tool for teaching soft communication skills to the medical students. Cinemeducation is unique and enjoyable narrative medical approach to teach medical humanities. People’s emotions play key role in learning attitudes and behavior. Using movies in teaching is an effective way to reach people’s affective domain, promote reflective attitudes, and link learning to experiences. Cinema is useful in teaching because it is familiar, evocative, and provides nonthreatening environment for students