Role Play in Clinical Teaching
Cherdsak Iramaneerat
Department of Surgery
Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital
Mahidol University
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Advantages
• Enable people to rehearse new behaviors
safely in situation which they may not
otherwise experience.
– Challenges their interpersonal abilities
– Facilitates the exploration in affective aspects
– Provides support to players
– Gives valuable feedback to players
Disadvantages
• Require teachers who are sensitive to clues
about feelings and emotions
• Time-consuming process
Process
Phase I: Selecting the situation
Phase II: Recruitment of players
Phase III: Adopting roles
Phase IV: Roles played out
Phase V: Experience explored
Phase VI: De-roling
Cox KR, Ewan CE. The Medical Teacher. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh 1982.
Phase I: Selecting the Situation
• Define learning objectives
• Choose a case that fits with the learning
objectives
• Not a very rare or impossible condition or
situation
Phase II: Recruitment of Players
• Players should not be forced into roles
• Gentle social pressure may be needed to
overcome natural shyness, but strong
pressure leads to hostility and impaired role
performance
Phase III: Adopting Roles
• Players should not use their own names
• Some information is made known to all
players, while some piece of information
would be known only to a particular player is
derived privately with the teacher.
Phase IV: Roles Played Out
• With an unscripted play, there is no prior
knowledge of what will happen, like in real life.
• Time loosely controlled
• Observation:
– Incidents that trigger thinking and feelings of
players
– Verbal and non-verbal clues of struggle
– Inability to make the scenario progresses
Phase V: Experience Explored
• Players are asked about their feelings and
reactions, using open-ended questions
• Audience participation is encouraged
• Avoid value judgment, speculations or blame
on persons
Phase VI: De-Roling
• An important step that cannot be omitted
• Players are relieved from discomfort they
carried during the role play
• When any role-based emotions have bee
resolved, the teacher can asked the player if
their real-life self has any advice for their roleplaying identity
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