Every Word and Action: Using Cinemeducation to Enhance Medical Students' Awareness of and Upstander Responses to...

Medical students are rarely given structured opportunities to explore how persons with disabilities (PwD) experience subtle discrimination, especially in clinical or academic settings. Despite the inclusion of disability-related competencies in medical school curriculum, microaggressions remain insufficiently addressed. This activity sought to create a reflective, immersive learning space to sensitize first-year medical students to microaggressions against PwD through a 2-day cinemeducation-based intervention.

One hundred fifty first-year medical students participated in two 3-hour faculty-facilitated small-group activities using curated film clips aligned with 12 identified themes of microaggressions against PwD. Each session combined film viewing, self-reflection, and structured group dialogues. Students maintained personal diaries for 6 months, which are long-term reflective documentation tools, to document their awareness, responses, and behavioral changes. Mixed-methods evaluation included pre-/posttests, confidence rating scales, session feedback, and semistructured interviews.

Learners demonstrated improvement in recognizing microaggressions, articulating inclusive responses, and confidence as an upstander (P < .0001), suggesting early gains in awareness and response. Thematic analysis revealed learners' increased self-awareness, empathy, and willingness to act as upstanders. Students reported shifts in language use, peer education efforts, and personal growth. The diaries served as a sustained reflective tool that reinforced students' commitments to inclusive practice.

This activity effectively bridged affective and cognitive learning. Moving beyond lecture-based instruction invited students to engage with the lived experiences of disability in a humanized and emotionally resonant manner. Cinemeducation, when embedded within a longitudinal reflective framework, holds transformative potential to promote disability inclusion and ethical awareness in medical education.