Enhancing deaf awareness in health professionals: an eLearning video resource

Deaf people frequently encounter communication difficulties with health professionals. The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at RCSI has recently launched the Medical Graduate Profile (MGP) in which the ability to communicate with deaf people is listed as a core competence. To achieve this outcome in the medical curriculum, an eLearning video resource has been recently developed. The resource is available to all students on the communication skills resource centre on the college's virtual learning environment (VLE) (Moodle) and is taught during the Essentials in Clinical Practice (ECP) module in the final medical year. The format is designed to appeal to a young audience whose viewing preferences are oriented towards brief, informative, magazine-style featurettes .The format of the feature is presented as a 'chat-show' between an interviewer (a doctor) and an interviewee (expert on deaf awareness) and discusses aspects of the deaf culture and language and gives important tips for effective communication. Each featurette is presented according to a FAQ format and thus students can work through the questions according to their own learning requirements. The resource has been developed using Adobe Flash and HTML and is the result of a collaboration between RCSI staff from a number of academic and non-academic departments and an expert on communicating with deaf people from Trinity College Dublin. Samples of the featurettes will be presented. This eLearning video resource illustrates the benefits of using a VLE such as Moodle to address specific communication skill learning outcomes in the medical curriculum.