Theater in medical education: Strengthening the component of clinical training of medical students

Abstract

The knowledge and skills expected of medical graduates upon completion of their undergraduate training are extremely vast and dynamic. Medicine has to be acknowledged as a combination of science and art, with science appealing to the scientific minds, while art encourages creativity and curiosity. The use of theater in medical education is not new by any means and has been extremely useful to help medical students to understand various life-threatening scenarios and settings that require medical humanities incorporation. To conclude, considering the complexities involved in the clinical training of a medical graduate student, it is our responsibility to adopt innovative teaching-learning methods. The use of theater in medical education delivery has been associated with developing many attributes of the hidden curriculum, including empathy, self-awareness, professionalism, and communication skills. The need of the hour is to acknowledge the potential of theater and integrate it with the existing curriculum to optimize the training of medical students.