Increasing patient acceptance of medical student participation: using interactive theatre for faculty development

Interactive theatre (IT) has been used to train faculty the skills and strategies to address challenging dynamics in educational settings.

This study described the development, implementation, and evaluation of an IT approach to improve preceptors' skills for increasing patients' acceptance of medical student participation in clinical care.

Focus groups were conducted with faculty, residents, medical students, and clinic staff to discuss issues related to patients declining medical student participation. Findings were used to develop a faculty development session using an IT approach. At a Family Medicine grand rounds presentation, faculty and resident preceptors (n = 42) participated in the IT workshop and completed a pre-post survey assessing skills specific to increasing students' training opportunities in patient care and educational impact of the session.

Following the IT session, preceptors reported greater self-efficacy for helping patients feel more comfortable with medical students in the exam room (p =.031, d = 0.338) and increased comfort level with talking to patients about medical students performing sensitive exams (p =.010, d = 0.357). Eighty-eight percent of preceptors agreed or strongly agreed that the session was relevant to improving clinical precepting skills and helped them develop strategies for enhancing medical student involvement in care.

Findings suggest that the interactive theatre approach to faculty development is an innovative and effective method to increase preceptors' comfort with discussing medical student involvement with patients.