Teaching bioethical issues of COVID-19 pandemic through cinemeducation: A pilot study

In the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented new bioethical challenges for humanity. Cinemeducation uses movies and television series to enhance understanding of complex concepts. The present study assessed the effectiveness of cinemeducation in teaching bioethical issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic to students of health sciences and humanities. Participants were recruited from two classes of fourth-year undergraduate students: those enrolled in a bioethics course in the Human Biology degree program (n=34) and in a course on social transformation in the Humanities degree program (n=29). The two classes watched clips from the TV medical dramas Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Doctor, and Chicago Med in a guided two-hour classroom activity. Participation in the study was voluntary. To measure the activity’s effects on learning, a 10-question multiple-choice questionnaire was administered before and after the activity. To measure students’ satisfaction, a survey about the usefulness of the activity was also administered. A total of 45 out of 63 (71.4%) students completed the questionnaires. Scores in both groups were higher after the activity (p< 0.05); mean improvements were 0.607 (95% CI: 1.16–0.45) for Human Biology students and 3.00 (95% CI: 3.87–2.12) for Humanities students. The improvement was higher in Humanities students (p < 0.05). Students’ satisfaction was high in both groups. The findings imply that cinemeducation can be effective for teaching some complex bioethics concepts in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.