Building Empathy and Professional Skills in Global Health Nursing Through Theatre Monologues.

Background: As part of a global health professional development class, the authors designed an educational activity for nursing students to write and perform 5-minute monologues based on interviews with individuals involved in global health. The goals of this educational activity included developing empathy, teaching qualitative research methods, and strengthening writing and presentation skills while encouraging students to engage with global health practitioners and real-world global health recipients. Method: Groups of four to five students used information from interviews with key informants working or receiving care in the global health context to develop monologues with the assistance of theatre professionals. Students presented the monologues at the end of the semester. Results: Student self-report and feedback from key informants indicated success in fulfilling the learning objectives. Conclusion: The innovative use of a monologue-based theatre component in an academic course increased empathy in undergraduate nursing students. The innovative use of a monologue-based theatre component in an academic course increased empathy in undergraduate nursing students. [[J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(11):653–656.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nursing Education is the property of SLACK Incorporated and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)