The role of actors in teaching communication

Abstract

This paper describes a series of communication workshops designed to improve the consultation skills of third-year clinical medical students during their period of attachment in general practice, and to enable them to understand the differences in perspective and attitude existing between doctor and patient and their effect on the process and outcome of the clinical interview. The workshops involve a group of professional actors as simulated patients. The advantages of this method are discussed in terms of increased lay participation in the teaching.

Feedback by simulated patients in undergraduate medical education: a systematic review of the literature

“…In 11 of all 49 studies, 7,10,27,28,30,36,39,41,51,56,59 SPs gave feedback from the patient’s perspective. In four of these studies, feedback was given solely from the patient’s perspective; no feedback was given on clinical skills or communication skills and no instruction was given to students 7,28,41,51 .…”

“…Standardised patients can also provide feedback from the patient’s perspective. When providing this type of feedback, the SP focuses on how he or she felt during the consultation with the student 27 . The feedback is ‘mirroring’; the patient recalls the reactions he or she experienced during the consultation with the student and relates them back to the student 28 .…”

Cure-oriented versus care-oriented attitudes in medicine

“…This provides a more`safe' framework for courses aimed at attitude development in the medical curriculum. It incorporates a care attitude besides the cure attitude as sound clinical competence as was earlier suggested by Whitehouse et al [23]. Thereby special attention in training should be devoted to the teaching of cure and care attitudes which are compatible.…”

“…The adoption of care attitudes by physicians implies that they become incorporated in their role model of the professional ideal physician. As Whitehouse et al [23] and Mc Whinney [6] put it:`p atient-centredness should not be considered as a timeconsuming luxury but as sound clinical competence''. Therefore, it is important that (a) care attitudes are not opposed to professional cure attitudes; (b) care attitudes are referred to as professional attitudes.…”

"Getting our act together" in nursing

“…Current creative writing and literature projects in nursing reflect our growing acknowledgment of, and interest in, ways of describing and understanding life and its parade of happy and sad events; however, the role of performing and expressive arts is still under‐explored in nursing. Nurses in the United Kingdom 1 –4 and Australia 5 , 6 have explored the processes of performance and artistic expression and have drawn on the expertise of performance and visual artists to advance nursing practice. Professional actors, in the role of lay teacher to nurses, have been involved in activities designed to develop a wide repertoire of professional nursing skills and judgments.…”