title: Educating medical students about the personal meaning of terminal illness using the film, "Wit".
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Addressing the emotional needs of dying patients is rarely found to have a place in formal medical curriculum and is also a difficult area to teach through classical medical lectures. "Cinemeducation" is a wonderful way to educate health care providers about the magnitude of emotions that arise during those difficult situations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aims of this study were to test the relevance and usefulness of the movie 'Wit' in teaching medical students about the personal meaning of terminal illness and to assess the impact of this teaching method on students' attitudes toward palliative care.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was an education study using qualitative and quantitative data analysis of 518 first-year medical students in a single medical faculty in Turkey. Students watched the entire film, filled out an evaluation questionnaire, and answered questions about the film. Students also expressed their own feelings and thoughts about palliative care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 88% rated the film as excellent, very good, or good. According to 54% of the students, the emotions of terminally ill patients were fully portrayed in the film and in a very realistic way. Approximately 61.4% of the students found this film emotional. Most students (80.5%) stated that this film made them think about the emotional and spiritual suffering that dying patients go through and found this learning approach about palliative care more useful than didactic lectures and journal article readings but not more useful than bedside rounds. It was thought that caring for dying patients would be very or fairly personally satisfying for 65.3% of the students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The film 'Wit' gave the students an opportunity to explore their beliefs, values and attitudes in terms of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual aspects of health care and encouraged them to think more about the humanitarian issues of the medical profession.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Uludag University , Bursa, Turkey .
authors.forename: Alis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozcakir
authors.forename: Nazan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bilgel
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000523:psychology*; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult