Abstract
Objective
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use and reception of the movie The Bridge as complementary to the suicide curriculum of medical students.
Method
One hundred eighty second-year medical students watched The Bridge as a part of the neuroscience curriculum in understanding suicide. They completed a pre- and post-movie survey regarding the understanding of suicide risk, reasons for suicide, prevention of suicide, and impact of suicide on surviving families. The percentage of answers in categories agree, strongly agree, disagree, and strongly disagree were calculated. The significance of results was calculated using paired t tests. Students were also asked to comment on the movie. The comments were grouped according to themes, and the percentages of comments on each theme were calculated.
Results
Students consistently reported they found watching the movie The Bridge to be valuable. Students were very receptive to the idea of using a movie to augment instruction on suicide and agreed that it reinforced concepts used in lecture. They also believed that The Bridge should be shown to people in the medical field, and more than 80 % of students had detailed comments to make about one or more people in the story or about the story in general.
Conclusions
The Bridge represents a useful method for instructing students and residents on suicide and has utility in medical education. It can and should be used alongside lectures for assisting in education about suicide.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable guidance and impeccable editing provided by Kimberly Best MD, Dilip Ramchandani MD, and Ruth Lamdan MD in the preparation of this document.
Disclosures
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest. No funding was provided for this study. Parts of this program were presented as an original poster at the Association for Academic Psychiatry Meeting (AAP) in September 2010 in Pasadena, CA, and the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society Colloquium of Scholars in March 2011 and 2012.
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Note: Drs. Retamero and Walsh were affiliated to Temple University Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia PA by the time this study was conducted.
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Retamero, C., Walsh, L. & Otero-Perez, G. Use of the Film The Bridge to Augment the Suicide Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education. Acad Psychiatry 38, 605–610 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0086-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0086-y