Application of Forum Theatre to Humanities Education for Medical Students: Focusing on Empathy

Purpose: Humanities are increasingly being introduced in medical curricula and discussed in the medical education literature. How to teach or inspire students is the most important aim. Especially empathy, it is a conception, a real life reaction. We applied the Forum Theatre to break the ice. Material and Method: A cross-sectional study to assess the empathy of all undergraduate medical students in a medical university was conducted using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy Student Version (JSPE) before and after Forum Theatre. Demographic data was obtained using a pre-test, semi open-ended questionnaire. Results: A participation rate of 68.9% was observed. Total students were 60 (30 male) with average age 21.6±2.8 years old. The mean empathy score was found to be 86.58±13.83 and 86.16±15.50 respectively before and after Forum Theater. Empathy was found to be associated with gender of the participant, with female having a higher score, but not significantly. Conclusions: No significantly difference before and after Forum Theater may be due to limited sample size and short time exposure. Furthermore, we require further studies to analyze and address the underlying factors associated with it.