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Impact of Improvisation Training on Medical Students' Experience with Medical Communication in Clinical Rotations-A
Stephanie K Kukora1,2, Brittany Batell3, Nithin Ravi4
1Bioethics Center and Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Mercy, Kansas City, MO USA.
Purpose:
To implement a medical improvisation-based educational training in the pre-clinical year and gather medical students' reflections following 1 year of clinical rotations to identify its impact on self-perceived clinical communication skills.
Methods:
We recruited medical student volunteers to participate in an established medical improvisation curriculum, complete course evaluations, and provide progressive reflections as they began and continued their clinical medical training. Course duration was 2 hours per week for 5 weeks, prior to beginning clinical rotations. Participants completed anonymous, electronic evaluations via Qualtrics software before and after the course, which included structured (closed-ended) and open-ended questions. One year later, after students completed core clinical rotations, we conducted semi-structured interviews and performed thematic analysis on transcripts.
Results:
In total, 23 of 24 students completed the course and surveys. Pre-/post-course comparison survey data show significant improvements in reported comfort with different communication situations. Eleven students (48%) participated in follow-up interviews. All interviewees reported they found the course valuable and, universally, would recommend it. In interviews, students noted that skills improved by medical improvisation included flexibility, a "yes, and" approach, accepting mistakes, listening, and confidence in unknown situations. Many interviewees felt medical improvisation was helpful to their professional development, gave them strategies for challenging conversations in real-life practice, and supported personal growth and wellness and building friendships.
Conclusion:
Medical students exposed to medical improvisation prior to clinical rotations noted both immediate benefits in communication skills and long-lasting improvement in specific domains of communication.
Supplementary Information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02478-6.
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