A TEACHING tool which uses reality TV and was derived at a Northumberland NHS Trust is being used to train North-East medical students.

The initiative was originally driven by Dr Fiona Osborne and Dr Miles Harrison of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, who used video clips from medical reality shows using patients for students to ‘look after’. Newcastle University Medical School has since become the first in the country to formally include reality TV in its regular curriculum, after using it throughout the pandemic.

The concept was originally based on shows such as Channel 4’s 24 Hours In A&E, which capture detail about patients when they are sick, some of whom have conditions which are rare to see in real life.

Dr Osborne, who has a background in paediatrics, said: “What we found was that this technique can be used to improve the emotional preparedness of students by helping them to encounter some of the most difficult aspects of being a doctor in a supported environment. The use of mannequins is a well-established means of training clinicians, but here the focus is on human connections and relationships, which can only result in better care for patients.”

Dr Belinda Bateman, a consultant paediatrician at Northumbria Healthcare who was also involved in the project, said: “This was a valuable learning experience for students in any event, but the pandemic has sparked a demand for online and distance methods. At a difficult time, it’s another tool to help ensure we are still passing on vital skills to the latest generation of doctors coming through.”

The reality TV initiative won a national prize for teaching innovation from the UK Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) and Drs Osborne, Harrison, and Bateman have developed a website to share their resources with students and other medical educators alongside another Northumbria consultant, James Fisher.

The group concluded in the BMC Medical Journey earlier this year that while students found using reality TV wasn’t as useful as learning from real patients, medical reality TV was a valuable ‘bridge.’