About the Author: Hal Cohen, DO ‘87 is an internist in southern Maine. He completed his residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, and practiced Pediatrics (MED/PED residency) until 2010. His research includes COVID, preventive medicine, diabetes, and sports. Dr. Cohen is a playwright known for Leonora Rabinowitz, I Love You, and 27, and is also a director and actor of the stage. On several occasions Dr. Cohen has provided workshops on improv to UNE COM’s Club and Organizations.
How Improv May Make You a Better Physician
By Hal Cohen, DO ‘87
In 1692, in a small town in Italy, Siena to be exact, on a warm summer's day, the Palio Di Siena was about to begin. Angela DiSorona stood on her rooftop to take in the view. Her big brown eyes scanned the town square. She was ready. Everyone was ready. But she wanted to see the horses. Not the jockeys. The horses. She could care less about people. She absolutely
loved horses. And the race was about to begin. She took one step forward to see better, but before she could take that step back, she fell through the roof and landed on the floor below and what she saw there changed her life forever. She saw ...
Go ahead. It's your turn. Finish it. She saw... But don't negate it. Don't say, "this is silly." And don't force your idea. Roll with theirs. Do it. It's “yes AND.” What she saw changed her life forever, anddddd... She saw an elephant? A blue balloon? Now you’ve got it. Yes AND! Her deceased Uncle, Joseph? Harry the Hairy Horse? "Yes and." That's the first rule of improv. It's a pretty cool rule. Take what your partner says, acknowledge it, don't negate it, and then add to it. If you do that, anything can happen on stage. Or in a college hall. A college hall filled with a gaggle of first-year medical students. Even if in the first few minutes of the presentation they were a gaggle of reluctant and highly skeptical first-year medical students. "Yes, And, damn it," I declared again and again! And eventually they did.
Why did Tara McDonough and I do this [improv] with a group of UNE medical students? By the way, Tara has two decades of experience as an improv performer and teacher, and I am an internal medicine physician who was in an improv comedy group about ten years ago. We did it because I realized that knowing improv made me a better physician. Acting, especially improv, is all about being in the moment with your scene partner. Too often, we physicians are walking into an exam room with our agenda wrapped up like a gift with a pretty bow. We know what questions we need to ask, what history we need to take, what labs we need to review, what exam we need to perform. Sure, of course, the patient will give us additional information and we will act upon that with great skill as well, but how present are we? The computer demands so much of us now. Oftentimes the patient says we weren't paying attention to them. We physicians do not like hearing that. It's not easy juggling everything. But what if the patient is right? The patient, truth be told, usually is. As much as we may try to give the patient as much devoted time as possible, that has become a challenge since the advent of the computer in the exam room. Improv skills require being fully present. So after I take care of the computer's needs, I turn my complete attention to the patient, and as best as I possibly can, I try to give them my full attention. I think the skills I've learned in acting class, and as an improv performer, have served me well as a physician. You cannot fake it as an actor if you want to be a good actor. We cannot fake it as a physician if we want to be a good physician. Will teaching medical students make them better physicians? It helped me. But will it help them? Maybe. Maybe not. But it could make them better listeners. And we all need to be as good at that as possible nowadays. Don't we? Hey! Pay attention! Are you listening?
So, she fell through the roof and landed on the floor below and what she saw changed her life forever. She saw... <>