D1.01 - Skill-building Workshop: Medical Improv: Spontaneity as a Health Promotions Skill

Brief Abstract Summary: Discover medical improv as an effective educational tool to enhance communication, mitigate bias, and reinforce core competencies in the health sciences. When integrated into health professions curricula, medical improv consistently yields positive outcomes in learner engagement and conversational skill development. This highly interactive skill-building session will engage participants in the foundational principles of medical improv and demonstrate its application in fostering adaptability and presence. Participants will learn and experience the benefits of using medical improv as a skill-building tool to transform health through education.

Detailed abstract description: Health promotion is full of unpredictable and unscripted moments, requiring presence and adaptability to effectively deliver health education to diverse populations. Traditional health education approaches may emphasize scripted and standardized interactions, overlooking the importance of spontaneity and adaptability as teachable skills. Medical Improv, developed from improvisational theatre, provides an innovative and experiential approach to bridging this education gap. Grounded in principles of collaboration, attentive listening, and spontaneity, medical improv allows learners to practice responding authentically in unscripted structures such as “yes…and…,” or “unfortunately…fortunately…” Structures used in medical improv highlight self-reflection, providing a mechanism to identify biases while developing adaptability and flexibility.
This skill-building session will introduce participants to the foundations of medical improv and demonstrate its impact with exercises tailored for healthcare and health education professionals. Participants will experience medical improv as an educational tool to transform health by strengthening resilience in the face of uncertainty and cultivating humility and adaptability when working with diverse communities.

Session outline:
1. Medical Improv overview (10 min)
2. Active listening with “yes, and” structures, with debriefing and discussion (20 min)
3. Medical improv games for effective communication, adaptability, and understanding diverse perspectives, with debriefing and discussion (20 min)
4. Application wrap-up Q&A: relating structures to real-time skill building (10 min)

The intended outcome of this hands-on skill-building session is to provide an overview of and experience with medical improv as a practical tool for educating and developing effective health professionals.