Short-film–based world café for faculty development in medical humanities: a mixed-method evaluation across three teaching hospitals

Abstract

Clinical educators play a central role in guiding the professional identity formation, ethical reasoning, and communication skills of medical students. Rapid changes in healthcare, including evolving legal frameworks, increasing visibility of gender diversity, and the emphasis on person-centered care, have generated more complex and ethically challenging clinical scenarios. Therefore, innovative faculty development approaches are needed to support clinical educators in addressing these issues within medical humanities education. The World Café model, combined with short film narratives, offers a dialogic and interdisciplinary learning format grounded in social constructivism, adult learning theory, reflective practice, and communities of practice. We implemented a 190-minute short-film–based World Café curriculum across four sessions in three Taiwanese teaching hospitals. A total of 115 clinical educators from multiple healthcare professions participated in this study. A post-course satisfaction questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data, and descriptive statistics and internal consistency reliability were analyzed. Qualitative data comprised contemporaneous handwritten records from the round-table discussions and transcripts of the audio-recorded plenary discussion and feedback session, and were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis framework. 83 participants completed the post-course questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 72.2%. The satisfaction ratings across the course components were consistently high. The participants gave high ratings to the instructional design, commending its innovative teaching model (mean 4.83 ± 0.41), appropriateness for faculty development (mean 4.85 ± 0.36), the added value of incorporating short-film scenarios into the World Café format (mean 4.90 ± 0.31), usefulness for future teaching practices (mean 4.87 ± 0.34), and perceived ability to support consensus-building on controversial issues (mean 4.81 ± 0.45). The questionnaire demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with a Cronbach’s α of 0.927. Qualitative findings were organized within four predefined themes: gender and communication, DNR and life-sustaining treatment, healthcare agents, and medical controversies and care, with subthemes identified through qualitative analysis within each theme. Discussions reflected interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and ethical reflection grounded in participants’ clinical experiences. A short-film–based World Café was well received by interdisciplinary clinical educators and provided a structured format for reflective engagement with complex ethical, legal, and communication issues in medical humanities education.