Cinemeducation: Using Movie Clips to Enhance Empathy among Medical Interns

A BSTRACT Background: Empathy plays a pivotal role in the doctor–patient relationship. Some studies show that empathy dwindles over the years in undergraduate education. The present study was therefore planned to measure and promote empathy among the interns by using Cinemeducation as an interventional tool. Materials and Methods: An educational interventional study was carried out among 60 interns belonging to the 2016 batch of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Telangana. The intervention consisted of two online sessions explaining the importance of empathy and best practices of empathy and a facilitated discussion on alternate days for a week in between on WhatsApp using movie clips. Jefferson’s scale of empathy—student version (JSE-S) was used to measure empathy levels. Knowledge and empathetic behavior were measured using a predesigned and pre-validated pre–post-test questionnaire and observer-rated checklist. Feedback on the Cinemeducation technique was taken. All the statistical analyses were performed using Jamovi software version 1.6.23.0. A value of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant for complete analysis. Results: Data from 35 interns who completed all the forms was analyzed. All the interns were in the age group of 22-24 years. There was no statistically significant improvement in the scores of self-reported empathy levels ( P = 0.153), but observer-rated empathy levels and the knowledge about empathy improved significantly (p =<0.001 and 0.003), respectively. Conclusion: Cinemeducation can be used to improve the empathy levels of interns. Periodic workshops/training are planned to ensure that the behavior becomes a practice and a habit.