Making a big drama out of healthcare: Learning together through role play
Innovation in education at QMU often means mixing things up in unexpected ways. Recently, two very different groups of students – dietetics and acting – came together for an interprofessional education (IPE) session that proved eye-opening and inspiring.
Dietetics meets drama
The project, ‘Developing Dietetic Conversations’, was designed to help dietetics students practice patient-centred communication while acting students stepped into the role of patients. But this wasn’t about reading case notes or rehearsing lines. Instead, acting students were given detailed character briefs – such as an older adult coping with bereavement and weight loss, or a refugee with type 1 diabetes adjusting to life in the UK.
Dietetics students then conducted 15-minute consultations, focusing on empathy, active listening, and professionalism. Afterwards, the acting students gave feedback from the patient’s perspective, helping their peers understand how communication felt on the receiving end.
Marion Scott, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Performance, explained: “Traditionally, interprofessional role play brings together healthcare disciplines where physical embodiment is required. But this collaboration focuses on gathering information from the character. Acting students benefit from researching and creating a rounded character to the brief provided and improvising during the session. Dietetics students develop confidence in motivational interviewing and counselling. By working together, both groups gained insights they wouldn’t have found in their own classrooms.”
Overwhelmingly positive feedback
Students reported improvements in communication, teamwork, and understanding of each other’s roles. One dietetics student summed it up: “It felt like a safe space to make mistakes and learn, but still realistic enough to feel the pressure of a real consultation.”
This collaboration highlighted that healthcare education doesn’t have to stay within its own walls. By inviting the performing arts into the mix, QMU is helping future professionals to communicate with empathy, adaptability and confidence.
Drama meets trauma: Paramedics, nursing and radiography take centre stage
In another interdisciplinary session, paramedic science, nursing, radiography and acting students joined forces for a joint simulation exercise. The scenario involved a cyclist lodged under a car, an intoxicated teenager, a gang of lively youths, and an ambulance crew.
As the paramedics worked to safely treat and extract the patient, they also had to control the chaotic energy of the crowd – all brought vividly to life by acting students. Once the paramedic students had managed the scene, the simulation continued in the clinical skills centre, where nursing and radiography students took over patient care. The whole simulation was relayed back to a lecture theatre where remaining students, from all disciplines, discussed in real time the problems and outcomes unfolding.
Shared learning and skills development
Sean Cullen, Lecturer in Nursing, who helped develop the immersive joint healthcare exercise, concluded: “Both healthcare and acting students discovered that while their disciplines may seem worlds apart, their willingness to collaborate created exciting new ways to hone professional skills, build confidence and connect with people.”
