FILMS AS A TEACHING RESOURCE IN HEALTH SCIENCES DEGREES

Introduction:
The academic use of commercial films with medical-scientific content has been previously demonstrated.1 Basically, the teaching experience consists of the projection of a film that shows real-world examples focused on health issues followed by round-table discussions. The formative character of this teaching strategy is centered not only on the health topic presented in the film as well as the involvement of the teacher to promote students´ study and stimulate their auto- reflection and critical decision-making on a health problem that they may encounter in their professional practice.

Objective:
Our study explores the potential contribution of using films as a teaching tool in the teaching-learning process of health sciences undergraduate students as well as the facilities and difficulties in this teaching resource. The main goal of our educational experience is the acquisition of transversal competences alongside an improvement of the learning of the subject Pharmacology in students of different Health Sciences degrees of the University CEU Cardenal Herrera.

Methodology:
The activity has been carried out during the academic year 2016-17 in two subjects Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacology in Nursing and Medicine degrees, respectively. In the study participated 25 students of Nursing (52.08%) and 46 students of Medicine (50.5%). A lecture on Parkinson's disease is complemented by a film projection. After the traditional lecture, it was screened the film "Awakenings".In order to assess the effectiveness of the teaching resource a questionnaire about the scientific content of the film was answered by the students. Subsequently, an anonymous survey including a five-point rating scale satisfaction questionnaire was provided to the students. Mean score was calculated for overall level of agreement / disagreement for each statement. Excel program was used to analyze the data.

Results and discussion:
Percentage of assistance was similar in Nursing and Medicine degrees. The activity proved to be very interesting to the students. The film helped them to clarify concepts. Many of them considered important to have previous theoretical background to understand the film, although it is not essential. The students also pointed out that the film allowed them to strengthen their theoretical knowledge.
Most of the students recognized that the activity should be compulsory, and it would be worthwhile to repeat it with other subjects of difficult comprehension.

Conclusion:
This experience has allowed us to demonstrate that films can play an interesting role in our classrooms, engaging students in ways that textbooks or lectures cannot. Therefore, the use of films provides a useful resource to the teaching-learning process in pharmacology for undergraduate students

References:
[1] García-Matamoros MA. Uso instruccional del video didáctico. Revista de investigación. 2014;38(81):43-67.
[2] Rates CMP, Silva LM, Pereira LM, Pessalacia JDR. The use of films as a teaching tool for the teaching learning process in bioethics. Invest Educ Enferm. 2014; 32(3): 421-429.
[3] Díaz Membrives M, Icart Isern MT, López Matheu MC. Use of commercial films as a teaching resource for health sciences students. Nurse Educ Today. 2016;36:264-7.