Introduction: Traditional medical education in Brazil has long been focused in information reproduction, with a passive role expected from the student of retaining and repeating contents. However, while considering the student as a mere spectator, education cannot achieve the goal to develop critic sense and reflexion that are necessary to a health care professional. Medical education is progressively changing throughout the world, influenced by many factors, including the availability of diverse new pedagogical techniques as well as different technologies. According to the literature, the efficacy of video production as a pedagogical tool seems clear, due to its ability to motivate students on exploring the topics and to increase student engagement. However, there are limited publication on it's use in medical education.
Objectives and methods: This work will report the experience of video production by second year residents of Family Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a pedagogical tool. A video making activity was an obligatory task for second year students to conclude their residency. Divided in groups of three to seven residents, they chose two themes related to family medicine or primary care, to make at least one video related to each theme. It was required a SMART draft and theme choice, an acronym that usually suggests a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reachable and Temporized planning. The work is being developed on two stages, one for each theme, and we recently concluded the first stage. A group of preceptors was detached to study and orient the end-stage-work. Each work group was supported by one preceptor and each preceptor had two work groups (four themes) to orient. The first step required was to write a concise paper comprising introduction, relevance of the theme, objectives and methodology, including the video script. There were monthly meetings for orientation in each small group, and two larger meetings including other residents, preceptors and members of the coordination to evaluate and discuss the proposals, in order to prepare for the process itself of making the video. Considering the technological challenges, a videomaker was provided by the residency program, in order to help the students in the process.
Results and conclusion: It was remarkable the involvement and dedication of many residents, that deeply studied and discussed relevant themes in which other pedagogical methods had failed to motivate them. At the first stage, 25 videos with five minutes duration were made, encompassing themes as Initial HIV Assessment, Clinical presentation of schizophrenia, Communication errors at the beginning of Consultation and How to deliver hard news. This experience allowed us as medical educators to use technologies available effectively, to transform learning into a more collaborative, personalized, and empowering experience.