Film Clubs in Psychiatric Education: the Hidden Curriculum

A cinenurducation activity using Call the Midwife to teach about sexually transmitted infections and preeclampsia: design, implementation, and assessment

BACKGROUND

Nursing students need to learn about sexually transmitted infections and preeclampsia. Cinenureducation is a rigorous method that uses materials from commercial movies or television series to teach health sciences students.

OBJECTIVES

Using content analysis of the television series Call the Midwife, design a cinenureducation activity teaching nursing students about sexually transmitted infections and preeclampsia. Evaluate its effectiveness in knowledge acquisition. DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION, AND PRE-POST ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE GAIN FOR TEACHING ACTIVITIES: The study comprised three main steps: designing the teaching activity, implementing it, and analyzing its pedagogical effectiveness through a pre-and-post study to assess knowledge acquisition resulting from the teaching activity.

PARTICIPANTS

A six-member panel assessed the suitability of materials for the teaching goals. All second-year undergraduate nursing students in the course "Nursing management and leadership" at a nursing school in the 2022-2023 academic year were invited to participate (N = 160).

METHODS

The panel conducted a content analysis of the first two seasons of the series to determine the usefulness of each episode for teaching the chosen topics. Students were randomly assigned to groups watching episodes emphasizing either sexually transmitted infections or preeclampsia, followed by discussion. Learning was gauged through a pre-post viewing 20-question multiple-choice test. Additionally, students' satisfaction was evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 142 nursing students participated. Significant differences between mean scores before and after intervention were found [6.90 vs. 6.42 on the preintervention assessment, p < 0.05; mean gain, 0.49 (95 % CI: 0.22-0.76)]. Most students were satisfied with the activity.

CONCLUSIONS

The activity was useful for teaching about sexually transmitted infections and preeclampsia. The use of a television series portraying nurses enables the exploration of these critical topics. This has potential implications for integrating similar methods into nurse education curricula, emphasizing the broader impact of the research on pedagogical practices in healthcare education.

Effectiveness of teaching psychopathology through the analysis of movie characters: a randomized controlled trial in Shandong Province, China

We studied the effectiveness of movie character analysis for teaching psychotic symptomatology to medical undergraduates. We randomly selected two of six medical schools in Shandong Province, China, then randomly assigned eight undergraduate classes at those schools to intervention or control groups. The intervention group (n = 162) participated in seminars in which psychotic symptoms were explored through analysis of movie characters. The control group (n = 165) participated in conventional seminars. The participants in both groups were surveyed with a custom-designed questionnaire, and their knowledge was assessed using a written exam. Compared to the control group, the intervention group showed greater interest in the topic (t = 5.63, p < 0.001), better understanding of psychotic symptoms (t = 2.37, p = 0.02), and greater acceptance (t = 9.80, p < 0.001). In addition, the intervention group showed significantly greater knowledge on the written exam (t = 5.78, p < 0.001). Analyzing movie characters can improve the teaching of psychotic symptomatology and should be further explored and promoted.

"Give My Daughter the Shot!": A Content Analysis of the Depiction of Patients with Cancer Pain and Their Management in Hollywood Films

INTRODUCTION

Cinemeducation, the pedagogical use of films, has been used in a variety of clinical disciplines. To date, no studies have looked at the use of film depictions of cancer pain and its management in clinical education. We investigated how patients with cancer pain and their management are depicted in Hollywood films to determine whether there is content that would be amenable to use for cancer pain assessment and management education.

METHODS

A qualitative content analysis was performed. Films that contained characters with or references to cancer pain were searched for using the International Movie Database, the Literature Arts Medicine Database, the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities Database, and Medicine on Screen. After review, 4 films were identified for review and analysis.

RESULTS

Themes that emerged from the analysis concerned the films' depictions of characters with pain, their healthcare providers, the therapies used for pain management, and the setting in which pain management was provided.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that patients with cancer pain are depicted in a compassionate manner. Pain management focused on the use of opioids. The settings in which patients received pain management was depicted as not being amenable to providing holistic care. This variety of topics related to pain management covered in the films make them amenable to use in cinemeducation. This study therefore forms the basis for future work developing film-based cancer education modules.

Popcorn in the pain clinic: a content analysis of the depiction of patients with chronic pain and their management in motion pictures

The watching of films is popular and accessible to broad segments of the population. The depiction of medical conditions in films has the potential to affect the public’s perception of them and contribute to stereotypes and stigma. We investigated how patients with chronic pain and their management are depicted in feature films. Films that contained characters with or references to chronic pain were searched for using databases such as the International Movie Database. Themes that emerged from the content analysis revolved around the films’ depictions of characters with pain, their health care providers, and therapies for pain management. Patients with chronic pain were depicted in various ways, including in manners that could elicit empathy from audiences or that might contribute to the development of negative stereotypes about them. The attitudes of health care professionals toward patients with chronic pain ranged from compassionate to dispassionate. Pain management was typically depicted as lacking in breadth or using multidisciplinary approaches with a focus on pharmacological management. The variety of topics related to chronic pain depicted in feature films lends to their use in medical education strategies to better inform health care professions trainees about chronic pain management.

Generalist health professional's interactions with consumers who have a mental illness in nonmental health settings: A systematic review of the qualitative research

Generalist health professionals (GHPs) or those healthcare professionals working in nonmental health facilities are increasingly being required to provide care to consumers with a mental illness. The review aimed to synthesize the qualitative research evidence on the meanings and interpretations made by GHPs (nonmental health professional) who interact with consumers with mental illness in nonmental health settings. A systematic review of the qualitative literature was undertaken for the years 1994-2016. The following electronic databases were searched: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts. Using narrative synthesis methods, the following themes were identified: mental health knowledge (the GHPs' knowledge level about mental illness and how this impacts their experiences and perceptions); GHPs perceive mental illness as a safety risk (GHPs concern over harm to the consumer and themselves); organizational support (the system response from the environmental design, and expert support and care); and emotional consequences of care (the feelings expressed by GHPs based on their experiences and perceptions of consumers). The results suggest that GHPs provide care in a setting which consists of multiple understandings of what care means. Efforts beyond educational initiatives such as organizational and system-level changes will need to be implemented if we are to progress care for this consumer group.