(244) A Qualitative Analysis of an Interprofessional Musical Educational Workshop Focusing on Non-Verbal Communication Skills

Objective : The importance of non-verbal communication on patient care has been well established in the literature. However, few health professional curricula teach these skills. Musicians employ non-verbal communication to coordinate their performances. Observation of musicians' use of non-verbal communication may improve the understanding and acquisition of these skills by healthcare professional students.

Methods: A total of 65 medical and 50 pharmacy students attended a workshop with a string quartet. Following a performance by the musicians, students and musicians engaged in activities to practice the non-verbal communication strategies employed by the quartet to optimize their delivery.
Authors provided pre- and post-surveys, which included closed and open-ended questions to assess understanding of underlying themes of non-verbal communication with patients and interprofessional teams. An inductive qualitative analysis was performed on open-ended questions to identify emergent non-verbal communication themes.

Results: Of the 115 students who attended the workshop, 105 students (91%) completed the pre-survey, and 94 students (82%) completed the post-survey. 52% medical and 29.5% pharmacy students had prior instrumental or vocal musical training. Comparison demonstrated improvement in students' knowledge in appreciating the influence of nonverbal communication with patients and teams (60.5% pre vs 72% post workshop).
Before the workshop, students identified the most important nonverbal communication cues they look for in patients’ interactions as eye contact (96.5%), body language (79.8%), facial expressions (45.6%), and emotional intelligence (20.7%). After completion of the workshop, emerging nonverbal communication strategies/themes emphasized team rehearsal/planning (59.7%) and paralinguistics (38.6%).

Conclusions: Healthcare professionals and musicians employ similar strategies to perform in teams and deliver specialized tasks; effective nonverbal communication is crucial to both. Engagement with musicians may serve as a vehicle to instruct students on non-verbal communication.