Stand-up-comedy inspired experiential learning for connecting emotions and cognitions in healthcare education: A pilot study

ABSTRACT

In stand-up comedy, a single actor establishes an intimate relationship with the audience and discusses out loud emotional issues regarding taboo subjects. The ‘stand-up design of instruction’ (STUDI) uses similar techniques in a three minutes video to help learners connect emotional and cognitive experiences of mental health problems in six steps. The present article discusses a pilot experiment using the STUDI pedagogical model. The results showed that learners developed a positive appreciation of the training, a better emotional and cognitive understanding of the experience of mental health problems, the ability to exercise subjective and objective analysis through engaging in dialogue with other students, and increased motivation and memory-anchoring. In addition to other methods, such as simulated patients or peer teaching, STUDI can provide a simple and inexpensive pedagogical alternative using standing techniques to address large groups of students and short-circuit the barriers between emotions and cognitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Comedy
• medical education
• mental health
• stand-up

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkqYgHWskYbqIP7sVfd_reAyOYKK0Exu9

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Charles Bonsack

Charles Bonsack is psychiatrist and psychotherapist FMH, professor of social and community psychiatry at Lausanne University and University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. He developed the foundations of STUDI pedagogical model during a sabbatical at the University of Aix-Marseille in 2018, considering that usual teaching methods were able to transmit factual knowledge, but not attitudes and relational or emotional skills.

Jérôme Favrod

Jérôme Favrod is full professor of psychiatric nursing and a clinical nurse specialist at the Nursing School, La Source, (HES-SO), Lausanne, Switzerland. His work focuses on supporting the psychological recovery process in people with severe psychiatric disorders. He has been developing, evaluating, and disseminating psychosocial interventions for symptoms and disabilities that do not respond to medication.

Alexandre Berney

Alexandre Berney is psychiatrist and psychotherapist FMH, professor of consultation liaison psychiatry at Lausanne University and University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. He developed several innovative programmes for the teaching of clinical skills in the field of psychiatry and communication skills (e.g., breaking bad news) at Lausanne medical school.

Marc Sohrmann

Marc Sohrmann is the head of the Medical Education Unit of the School of Medicine FBM, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His activities focus particularly on faculty development, instructional design (including teaching strategies integrating e-Learning) and the evaluation of teaching.

Laurent Frobert

Laurent Frobert is Vice-Dean of Pedagogical Development of the Nursing School, La Source (HES-SO) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has worked as a psychiatric nurse and music therapist. He then developed a career in adult education and became specialised in techno-pedagogy.

Alexandra Nguyen

Alexandra Nguyen is full professor and the dean of the Nursing School (HES-SO), Lausanne, Switzerland. She obtained her PhD in educational sciences at the Geneva University. Her scientific work focuses on the design of training devices, learning processes, and social interactions between professionals and patients or between students and teachers.