Enriching Medical Students’ Attitudes About Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Through Viewing of “Starless Dreams” in a Cross-Cultural Seminar on Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

Across the USA [1] and globally [2], undergraduate medical education in child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) is limited. Efforts to promote child and adolescent psychiatry generally focus at the post-graduate level, though proposals for strengthening undergraduate medical education in CAP exist [3]. Cinema offers creative opportunities for psychiatric education [3], and several authors [4][5][6] have already explored the use of film to teach CAP and human development [7]. Outcome data concerning the use of film remains sparse. Considering that pre-clerkship exposure is an important factor for medical students pursuing psychiatric training [8] and that evening-hour education has documented benefits of being free from workday time pressures [9], we aimed to study the capabilities of an evening cinema program for early-career medical students in relation to CAP training and recruitment. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting in-person activity restrictions raise the need for virtual medical education interventions. Additionally, increased contemporary interest in diversity and social justice heighten the importance of education in global and cross-cultural settings that are not readily available in-person.By creating opportunities to collectively consider human behaviors and circumstances, film screening and discussion may model thoughtful consideration of clinical concepts and the diverse lived experiences of patients' mental illness [10]. Specifically, narrative-based learning through film may contribute to the formation of well-rounded clinicians by "preparing medical students to engage in the shared decision-making process with their patients" [11] and augmenting narrative competence, or "the capacity to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by stories of illness" [12].