CHS Professors Bring Theatre to the Classroom to Address Healthcare Disparities
Published September 14, 2022
By Darlene Muguiro
UTEP College of Health Sciences
This fall, CHS students will benefit from the experiences of professors who participated in Theatre for Healthcare Equity, a late-summer workshop organized by the UTEP Department of Theatre and Dance that uses Theatre of the Oppressed methodology to address healthcare disparities, specifically in the areas of bias, prejudice, and stereotyping.
Dr. Jeannie Concha (Public Health), Dr. Amelia Rau (Speech-Language Pathology) and Ms. Elizabeth Camacho (Clinical Laboratory Science) responded to the call for participants and attended a week-long training along with other professors from UTEP and from Texas Tech University Health Science Center’s (TTUHSC) Paul Foster School of Medicine. Participants were trained to engage the audience to participate in a scripted scene, allowing them to change the script to best represent their experience. Themes that were explored during the workshop included power, compassion, communication, collaboration, and identity.
Rau said she felt compelled to participate in the training as soon as she saw the intersecting key words “theatre, equity, healthcare, and dance.” Rau tap dances and figure skates, which often require a stage presence, and she also has experience directing Readers Theatre methodology as a platform for summer interventions for K-12 students with and without disabilities.
“These are all important parts of my identity,” said Rau. “I immediately recognized elements born out of 1960s movements for social justice and transformative methods related to the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire. This opportunity felt very personal, as it called back many philosophies and experiences that were crucial to my formation as a speech-language pathologist concerned for the marginalization of those without highly-skilled or mainstream communication abilities.”
Rau says that she has begun implementing many of the strategies in her classrooms this semester, encouraging her students to use play to analyze and address heavy social issues and for healing purposes.
“I now feel much more capable of hosting difficult topics and dialogue as ‘scenes,’” she said. “Many students enter rehabilitation sciences due to the needs of a loved one. Sometimes their experiences have been, or still are, traumatic or they themselves struggle to reconcile themselves as caregivers or patients while also becoming professionals. Theater for Healthcare Equity helps us embrace our duality as both empowered patients and empowering providers and can allow for increased flexibility and compassion as we process ‘plot’ options in healthcare.”
Concha says that she has always sought out creative outlets for her research and interest in health disparities. Despite a failed attempt at auditioning for a play on the Mexican-American experience while still a PhD student, she felt compelled by the opportunity to be trained properly in integrating cultural creativity into her work. She says the best part of the experience was the ability to be vulnerable and to collaborate with the “amazing” faculty from UTEP Theatre and Dance. In her classes, she has already begun using strategies requiring participants to use their bodies to convey important messages.
“At the start of every class we do a little physical activity that loosens and gauges students’ energy levels for the day,” she said. “I also have incorporated Image activities where I have students work in groups to create an image using their beings to convey the public health topic of their interest. As a class, we had to communicate how we interpreted their image. The students are quick to engage, and it has really sparked conversation in class on the topic. I think it relaxes them to converse on public health topics and think outside of the box.”
Camacho echoed Concha’s sentiments, adding that learning something outside of her area of expertise was “difficult” at first, but something she couldn’t let pass by. She was also thankful for the opportunity to share the often misunderstood role of clinical laboratory scientists on healthcare teams with her colleagues.
“I wanted to know how this experience might relate to Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS),” she said. “Healthcare teams involve many different disciplines, including CLS. Not too many people know about what we do, but it’s important for people to learn about each member of the team and their role in patient care.”
Camacho added that she was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed the experience and said that she plans to bring the lessons into her classrooms.
“I plan to talk to the students about my wonderful experience so they can understand the purpose behind it – making a difference in patients’ healthcare experiences.”
Rau mentioned that this experience may be just the beginning of a longer-term effort to bring Theatre of the Oppressed methodology to more faculty and students, ultimately benefiting patients in need.
“The trained team with TTHUSC is very excited to continue to share Theater for Healthcare Equity with faculty, mentors, clinical supervisors, and community partners,” she said. “Stay tuned!”
###
Go Miners!
Photos courtesy of Dr. Amelia Rau