Getting the message across: does the use of drama aid education in palliative care?

Abstract

Drama is a promising means of delivering educational messages in palliative care. Research studies have found drama to be an effective means of delivering educational messages in other domains of learning, such as teaching health education to children and adults and engaging the general public in health policy development. This paper discusses the potential of drama for palliative care education and provides an example of the use of a drama to deliver messages about death and dying at a conference on palliative care. The paper suggests a theoretical framework for how future drama productions could be developed to educate the community, health professionals and students about palliative care.