Caught on film: Identity formation and interprofessional insight using ethnographic film

Ethnographic film is an effective method for understanding students’ emerging professionalism and their professional identity formation within the curriculum. In the film accompanying this editorial, Jowsey has created an ethnographical research output that provides a visual window on the topic of negotiating professional identify formation in interprofessional simulation-based education.

The ethnographic film Prepared to Care tracks the journeys of students from four different professions through their engagement in a 4-day simulation course about urgent and immediate patient care in Auckland, New Zealand. The film is observational, capturing authentic student responses to ‘patients’ and to each other. It offers us rich information about how students display their professional selves: through interactions with peers and with simulated ‘patients’ in their actions, gestures, behaviours and facial expressions; and through their expression of ideas, concerns and beliefs—as evidenced in their candid short interviews following simulation debriefs. In the film, we see students learning to triage, manage their nerves and anxiety, share information in structured ways, manage tasks, and demonstrate respect and empathy as they cope with dying ‘patients’. We also see students relax immediately following simulations and in that moment it becomes clear how much effort and stress was involved during their simulation.