The Theatre of Medicine: New course using performing arts to help doctors be more empathetic

A new continuing education course is helping doctors become better and more empathetic communicators—with the help of the performing arts.The Theatre of Medicine is a weekend course offered through the Shaw Festival in Niagara-one-the-Lake, Ont. and approved for accreditation by the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. Through principles of improv and theatre, the program aims to give physicians the tools to build deeper and more effective human connections with both their patients and their colleagues in the form of interactive “PowerPoint-free” workshops.“In the theatre, that's our education: listening exercises, and movement exercises, and working with story and improvisation. There's all these skills that we have. We have tried and true exercises that we do with this stuff,” Shaw Festival’s movement director Alexis Milligan, who developed the program, told the Medical Post. The earliest version of the program came about when Milligan was working on a research project with Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing and originally started as a 90-minute workshop for upper-year nursing students. During that first workshop, Milligan asked the students to stand it a circle, look at someone, make a connection with them and walk towards them—a task that they found surprisingly difficult.“I was shocked by that, and I was like, ‘Wow, why would it be challenging? What's difficult about it?’ And I'll never forget, one of the students said, ‘It's just so intimate, just to make a connection with someone,’” said Milligan.“I realized that there were these nursing students, in their final year of education and learning they're just about to go out into clinical—and that idea of human connection was really difficult for them to actually look across the circle, make a connection with someone,” she continued. “So, I started to find more opportunities to come in and teach these skills.”After running that workshop with numerous groups, from corporate teams to teachers, Milligan partnered with Dr. Glen Bandiera, executive director of standards and assessment at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, to expand the workshop into a full weekend-long, nine-credit continuing professional development course. They piloted the course in 2024 with eight participants and ran it for the second time this past September.“Glen and I came together with the Shaw Festival, which is on a massive campaign right now to really shift the way we think of the role of arts and performing arts as a social responsibility,” said Milligan. “And as such, we have this opportunity to create an environment where people can come to the theatre, and really learn something, really take away something.”In addition to the workshops, the registration fee also includes meals prepared by the in-house culinary team, a VIP wine-tasting and a three-course dinner at Niagara winery, and tickets to see two plays at the Shaw Festival—which Milligan calls “a really important part of the whole weekend.”“Going to see the play is actually key, because it's where you get to see the work that we've done, the skills that we've been doing on basic level. You get to see them in the hands of the real craftspeople,” she explained.The full weekend course is only offered one a year in September, but the Shaw Festival also offers half-day and full-day professional development retreats, as well as off-site workshops for those unable to make it to Niagara-on-the-Lake. An increasing body of research suggests improvements in empathy and communication in healthcare are positively linked to increases in patient satisfaction and outcomes. “I think what we're trying to do in our advocacy for the Theatre of Medicine program, and what we're doing at the Shaw Festival is to recognize that there are tangible practical approaches to developing these skills that the arts can help fill the gap,” Milligan said.

The Theatre of Medicine: New course using performing arts to help doctors be more empathetic

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