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In this section:
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Angry Farmer confronts Rachel the young vet
The suicide rate amongst UK vets is almost twice that for the medical profession and four times greater than in the general population. One approach to address this issue has been to work with undergraduates to assist them in recognising the potential problems they may face in practice and how they might best respond to these challenges.
Topics such as depression, addiction and suicide can be difficult to address in a conventional lecture environment. Students find such subjects uncomfortable to discuss and hard to relate to personally. In contrast, drama is able to present a range of sensitive topics and contexts in a non threatening context which is better able to engage the audience. The performance presented here showed the progression of a young female vet, Rachel, from carefree and able practitioner to a stressed professional contemplating serious self-harm using a range of pedagogic and theatrical techniques.
Evidence from a comprehensive evaluation demonstrated that this approach was valued by students, practitioners and those involved in the policy and politics of the veterinary world. This experience could provide some pointers as to how a similar approach might be adapted for use in other educational settings such as medical undergraduate education.
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Contact: Nick Short, e-Media Unit, Royal Veterinary College, London NW1 OTU
AMEE 2007, Trondheim, Norway 25-29 August 2007 Conference Website RVC AMEE Pages
