Krista Longtin

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1805/40147

Improv(ing) Communication About Science and Health: How Theatre Can Help Experts Connect and Collaborate with the Community

Communication is a fundamental part of the human experience and a critical element of the scientific process. We’ve learned so much in the past 50 years about how to communicate effectively, especially in science and health, but we’ve struggled to get that new knowledge into education programs. Dr. Krista Longtin's research seeks to answer the questions: what is the best way to train experts on how to talk about science and health? And, how can we revise curriculum to teach physicians, scientists, and healthcare providers to communicate most effectively to non-experts, including patients, children, and policymakers?

Dr. Longtin is proud to have worked with multiple community organizations to improve science and health communication. For example, she worked with the Evangelical Community Church in Bloomington and the Center for Interfaith Cooperation to hold community conversations about the shared values between science and faith. Each year, the Communicating Science graduate minor program and workshop series trains hundreds of students and faculty on what works in communication strategies. Dr. Longtin and her collaborators actively seek to upend the “deficit model” of science communication, a misconception that just simply giving more information will change decision-making behavior. Rather than just sharing information, physicians and scientists must be engaged in helping their patients and community members see themselves as collaborators in sharing information and making decisions. By dispelling this myth and teaching collaborative communication, Dr. Longtin and her collaborators help regular Indiana people make better decisions about health and science every day.

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By chance or by design? How clerkship and course directors navigate academic medicine
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista
Academic medical centers (AMCs) are complex, bureaucratic organizations with multiple, interconnected missions and constituencies (Brater, 2010). What happens in the classroom affects the operating room and lab. As the responsibilities to treat patients, discover new medical knowledge, and train future physicians become more complex, it is critical to define and situate the pathways to and roles of medical education leaders within the system, so that institutions can fully benefit from their contributions. This study uses an organizational communication lens to develop a theoretical understanding of the relationship between faculty members who are clerkship and course directors (CDs) and AMCs in the U.S. Clinical faculty who become CDs often do so because they are gifted educators. They are responsible for developing faculty, as well as managing curriculum and assessment. These complex roles often lack clear position descriptions and expectations. Though CDs value education, they may face economic pressures to spend more time in clinical duties at the expense of their education responsibilities (Cooke et al., 2006). This can create conflicts in organizational identity and values, as well as an unclear path to tenure, promotion, and rewards (DeAngelis, 2004). This study uses in-depth interviews to explain how CDs manage the multiple (sometimes competing) values and priorities of their roles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight CDs, from institutions of similar size and type, to investigate three interrelated concepts: how faculty become CDs; how they make sense of their roles and values in relationship to those of the institution; and how the structure of AMCs shapes the roles and values of CDs. A qualitative approach, as applied in this study, is useful to understand behavior in complex organizational contexts (Castillo-Page et al., 2012). Interview findings were aggregated into significant narratives and organized by theme, including: pathways to the role; a conflict in values; inconsistent funding; and structural challenges. A grounded theory was developed to explain the process by which CDs manage their complex roles. Findings from this study indicate that CDs are critical to the education mission and can be powerful in shaping the institution, though they face significant challenges. They can feel isolated, because each institution might only have a few individuals that serve these functions. Diverse responsibilities of CDs might also mean that their paths to promotion are unclear or tenuous. Further research is necessary to understand the process of socialization and impact of the reward structure for CDs. Clerkship and course directors do seem to value their sense of organizational identification within multiple contexts, including the medical school, discipline, and the hospital system. In the same vein, it would be helpful to have a better understanding of the connections among their multiple identifications. Additionally, exploring the identification of university faculty in multiple settings may serve to expose subtle differences for identification management used in different contexts for faculty with different roles. Results of the study can be used to shape policies and faculty development efforts for CDs, leading to a clearer sense of purpose and reward system. A deeper understanding of the experiences of CDs benefits both faculty and institutions. Faculty receive more role clarity and individual agency, and AMCs receive information on how to better meet the needs of this population, thus improving the efficacy of medical education.
Making Science Make Sense: Applied Improvisation in Health and Life Sciences
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Rossing, Jonathan
Abstract Both in and out of the classroom, physicians and scientists must speak in a way that generates excitement about their disciplines (Berrett, 2014). They also must communicate vividly to funders and policy makers about their work and why it matters. In every context, these experts must tell engaging stories, respond spontaneously to the needs of the moment, and explain their work in terms nonscientists can understand. In response, some universities have turned to the techniques of improvisational theater to help scientists to speak more spontaneously, responsively, and engagingly. Over the past year, we have conducted a series of workshops (N=54) for a variety of audiences including, doctoral and post-doc students in the sciences, for educators, for physicians and research scientists, and for doctoral nursing students. The workshops help participants make stronger connections to their multiple audiences. They include content on improvisation skills such as presence and listening, acceptance, recognizing offers, and storytelling to help scientists translate their research in ways that engage their audiences. This approach moves faculty toward understanding communication as a process of collaborative meaningmaking, thus helping them to address the “curse of knowledge” by which experts forget the time when they were novices in their field (Bass, 2015). This poster will report on four key areas of the intervention and evaluation: 1) the need for communication training in the health professions and sciences, 2) the development of the programs, 3) the program efficacy and outcomes. Higher education presents unique challenges for the practice of applied improvisation. While enthusiasm for the work has grown in industry, some audiences within the academy seem resistant to the methods, especially within the sciences. This poster will also address the ways expertise, prestige, and rank affect the practice of applied improvisation in higher education, and we will propose strategies for mitigating resistance.
The Work/Life Portal: An Innovative Navigation Tool for Faculty Benefits & Policies
(AAMC Group on Faculty Affairs Professional Development Conference, 2014-07-19) Ganci, Aaron; Krista, Hoffmann-Longtin
Project Benefits and policies of large academic medical centers can be challenging for faculty to navigate. A recent survey of faculty at our institution reported large gaps in their knowledge about and use of benefits and policies related to career flexibility. For example, nearly half of our faculty didn’t know about clock stoppage policies and expressed concern about how polices were communicated. Thus, the goal of this project was to develop a web-based solution to clearly convey work life benefits and policies. Methods In partnership with our school of art and design, a two-phase project was developed to design a new web portal for benefits/policies. In phase one, we conducted qualitative, usability testing of current web and print resources with the goal of further explaining the survey results. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with new and veteran faculty, as well as campus HR staff. They reviewed the current resources; provided feedback on what was unclear or hard to find; and finished by drawing their “dream website.” Results In phase two, the team used the design-thinking methodology to develop a prototype of the website. After systematically testing ideas, the team settled on a modified natural language user interface, where a faculty member types in a question or idea (e.g. “I’m having a baby”) and a series of policies is returned, associated with keywords within the question. The simple design of the interface allows faculty affairs office staff to assign word tags to policies/benefits that may appear in the user’s questions. A free online tool (http://wordpress.org) was used to create the portal. Conclusion The new portal allows our institution to create a clear online presence for work life benefits and policies, demonstrating our institutional commitment to supporting faculty. At the same time, the program uses resources efficiently. The only expenses incurred have been faculty and staff time to conduct the study and develop the portal. Implications While the portal is still in development, it demonstrates a promising shift in how faculty affairs offices can collaborate with faculty and internal partners. By designing and testing ideas with faculty and HR professionals, we created buy-in for the project early on. These individuals have the potential to become early adopters of the new portal, sharing their positive experiences with others.
Twelve tips for using applied improvisation in medical education
(Taylor & Francis, 2017) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Rossing, Jonathan; Weinstein, Elizabeth; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Future physicians will practice medicine in a more complex environment than ever, where skills of interpersonal communication, collaboration and adaptability to change are critical. Applied improvisation (or AI) is an instructional strategy which adapts the concepts of improvisational theater to teach these types of complex skills in other contexts. Unique to AI is its very active teaching approach, adapting theater games to help learners meet curricular objectives. In medical education, AI is particularly helpful when attempting to build students’ comfort with and skills in complex, interpersonal behaviors such as effective listening, person-centeredness, teamwork and communication. This article draws on current evidence and the authors’ experiences to present best practices for incorporating AI into teaching medicine. These practical tips help faculty new to AI get started by establishing goals, choosing appropriate games, understanding effective debriefing, considering evaluation strategies and managing resistance within the context of medical education.
Making Sense of Science: Applied Improvisation for Public Communication of Science, Technology, and Health
(Methuen Drama, 2018) Rossing, Jonathan P.; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista
Stepping Stones: A Leadership Development Program to Inspire and Promote Reflection Among Women Faculty and Staff
(Wiley, 2017-06) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Morgan, Zachary S.; Schmidt, Lauren Chism; Walvoord, Emily C.; Palmer, Megan M.; Dankoski, Mary E.; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
Women frequently benefit from focused faculty development opportunities not because they need to be “fixed,” but rather it is a means to demonstrate that success, even in chilly environments, is possible. The Stepping Stones program uses a unique design to provide participants with inspiration, time for reflection, and strategies for how to navigate one's career, through hearing about the journeys of successful women. In this article, we describe the program and evaluation results. Post‐event and longitudinal follow‐up surveys indicate that the program and its unique narrative format help to debunk the superwoman myth and leave participants with a sense of optimism about their future careers.
Bridging the gap for future clinician‐educators
(Wiley, 2018-12) Dilly, Christen K.; Carlos, W. Graham; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Buckley, John; Burgner, Anna; Medicine, School of Medicine
Background In contrast to the training required in the UK, opportunities for medical education training in the USA are limited. Resident‐as‐teacher programmes are typically insufficient to prepare trainees to be successful clinician‐educators, but few pursue formal education degrees. We sought to assess the need for, and feasibility of, a training pathway for subspecialty fellows in a large Department of Medicine that would prepare our trainees to become effective educators. Methods Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Previous fellowship applicants and current programme directors were surveyed to determine the potential benefits of the programme. A pilot programme was conducted with fellows interested in education to determine the feasibility of the programme. Pilot participants were interviewed regarding the benefits that they gained from the pilot and the logistical challenges that they experienced. In contrast to the training required in the UK, opportunities for medical education training in the USA are limited Results Five highly ranked fellows would have scored our programmes higher if we offered this training pathway. Pilot participants and fellowship programme directors agreed that there is a compelling need for such a training pathway. A number of themes arose from the interviews that enabled us to build the framework for a strong programme. Discussion Our findings suggest that a clinician‐educator training pathway that draws from multiple subspecialties has the potential to improve recruitment, provide needed career counselling and skills development to trainees, and to build a community of educators that will benefit the institution. Important insights from pilot participant interviews will inform the programme design, in order to keep trainees engaged and overcome logistical challenges.
Teaching advocacy communication to pediatric residents: the efficacy of applied improvisational theater (AIT) as an instructional tool
(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Organ, Jason M.; Helphinstine, Jill V.; Reinoso, Deanna R.; Morgan, Zachary S.; Weinstein, Elizabeth; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
In today’s communication landscape, the public often turn to the Internet and social media instead of their physician for health information. To remain relevant and respected amidst the wealth of health information available online, physicians need to offer something the Internet cannot fully emulate: empathetic imagination and an ability to instantaneously tailor messages to reach and teach worried and often confused audiences effectively. We developed an instructional communication module for pediatric residents that used applied improvisational theater to help residents develop complex and dynamic communication skills. The module included opportunities to develop empathy, practice audience analysis, distill messages to key points, and apply these skills in media and community contexts. Attendees completed surveys regarding their perceptions of curricular structure, efficacy, and utility. Preliminary results indicate gains in communication confidence and skills. This type of instructional communication and training module encourages healthcare practitioners to position themselves as trusted experts and partners in helping clients make meaning of health information, thus empowering a new generation of pediatricians to bridge communication gaps created by new technologies and increased access to multiple information sources.
Active Learning on Center Stage: Theater as a Tool for Medical Education
(Association of American Medical Colleges, 2019-01-30) Hobson, Wendy L.; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Loue, Sana; Love, Linda M.; Liu, Howard Y.; Power, Christine M.; Pollart, Susan M.; Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
Introduction: Knowledge and skill development related to communication must incorporate both affective and behavioral components, which are often difficult to deliver in a learning activity. Using theater techniques and principles can provide medical educators with tools to teach communication concepts. Methods: This 75-minute faculty development workshop presents a variety of techniques from theater and adapts them for use in medical education. Using examples related to diversity and inclusion, this session addresses general educational and theater principles, role-play, sociodrama, applied improvisation, and practical aspects of involving theater partners. The session materials include a PowerPoint presentation with facilitator notes, interactive activities to demonstrate each modality, and an evaluation. The sessions can be extended to longer formats as needed. Results: Forty-five participants at Learn Serve Lead 2016: The AAMC Annual Meeting attended the 75-minute session. We emailed 32 participants 5 months after the conference, and eight responded. Participants reported that their confidence level in using theater techniques as a tool for medical education increased from low-to-medium confidence presession to high confidence postsession. All survey respondents who were actively teaching said they had made changes to their teaching based on the workshop. All commented that they appreciated the active learning in the session. Many indicated they would appreciate video or other follow-up resources. Discussion: Principles and techniques from theater are effective tools to convey difficult-to-teach concepts related to communication. This workshop presents tools to implement activities in teaching these difficult concepts.
Narrating Patienthood: Engaging Diverse Voices on Health, Communication, and the Patient Experience
(Lexington Books, 2019) Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Hayden, Adam
Biomedical researchers are trained to use positivistic approaches to develop efficacious treatments and pursue cures for illness and disease. Accordingly, they rarely engage persons living with the disease in the development of research questions and protocols (Sacristán et al., 2016). Just as patient narratives can create therapeutic partnerships in delivery of treatment (DasGupta & Charon, 2004), they offer value to the research process as a means to emphasize the person with the disease, rather than the disease, in isolation. We are interested in the role of patient stories as tools for influencing the biomedical research process (Greenhalgh, 2009; Panofsky, 2011). Applying Ellingson’s (2009) approach to crystallization in qualitative research, we explore intersections in the literature on patient advocacy, our own narratives, and those from biomedical researchers and patients. We seek to uncover the meaning of involving not only patients, but patients’ stories (Hyden, 1997), in creating an agenda for research in healthcare.

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