Student perceptions of medical improv in Sweden: an assessment of acceptability, relevance, and psychological safety

Background Medical improv is an innovative educational method that uses techniques and exercises from improvisation theatre to facilitate learning among healthcare students in a broad range of domains including communication, teamwork and professional skills. To date, there are few reports on the use of this pedagogical method outside of North America. We report here on the development, implementation and evaluation of a medical improv seminar series for undergraduate medical students in Sweden. Methods We developed an extracurricular five-part seminar series in medical improv in collaboration with a local theatre group and according to best practice guidelines. The seminar series was held twice during spring 2024 and was open to all undergraduate medical students at Uppsala University. We developed a questionnaire to assess participating students’ perceptions of the acceptability and relevance of the seminar series, as well as experienced levels of psychological safety. Students voluntarily completed the questionnaire at the end of the fifth seminar. Results Participating students (N = 17) were highly positive concerning the acceptability and relevance of the teaching method, and uniformly recommended the seminar series to fellow students. Our results provide strong evidence of high levels of experienced psychological safety in each participating student group at the end of each seminar series. Conclusions Our study provides strong support for future efforts to implement medical improv as a teaching method in undergraduate settings and outside of North America. We contend that there are promising signs that medical improv may be a widely applicable teaching method that both stimulates learning in essential competency areas and fosters greater psychological safety; more broadly, it may provide a space for playfulness, stress-relief and the cultivation of resilience among medical students.