Theatre partnership with Wrexham GP training programme marks 10 years

An innovative partnership which sees theatre students from Wrexham Glyndwr University help to train GPs in North Wales has marked its 10th year.

The work with the Wrexham GPs specialty programme, based at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, is now established as a key part of the university’s degree in Theatre, Television and Performance.

A consultation skills workshop is held every October at the hospital, with students acting as patients with a range of medical problems.

The workshops allow the students to work on role-play techniques and enhance their applied theatre skills through corporate drama exercises.

In return, medics who are training to be GPs are able to practice their communication skills with patients.

Elen Mai Nefydd, Senior Lecturer in Theatre, TV and Performance, said: “The partnership has been such a valuable learning experience for our students and it has enhanced their training in a very specialist area of performance. This will provide them with a valuable skillset in the industry when they graduate.”

Ian Happs, General Practitioner and programme director and GP Trainer said: “Working with the theatre students from Wrexham Glyndwr University over the past decade has been a real pleasure and extremely valuable for our junior doctors.

“The theatre students have worked hard to give accurate portrayals of all sorts of people with many different medical problems.

“They have helped the trainee GPs to develop their consultation skills and to prepare for their final professional exams.
“On a personal level, I have found the project very rewarding and I’ve been delighted to help to bring our two very different disciplines together each year.
“A big thanks to Elen Mai and the team. I look forward to continuing the partnership in the years to come.”
Applied theatre is one of the unique strands to Wrexham Glyndwr University’s BA (Hons) in Theatre, Television and Performance.
Other projects have seen students work with new high school pupils to help them cope with issues such as relationships, cyber-bullying and classroom discipline.
Working in partnership with Alzheimer’s Society in Wrexham, they’ve also helped to raise awareness of dementia by devising their own theatre production called Open Voices.
Find out more about the degree at https://www.glyndwr.ac.uk/en/Undergraduatecourses/TheatreTelevisionandPerformance/