Why Did the Scientist Cross the Road? A Case Study on Using Science Comedy to Improve Communication Skills in the Healthcare Science Workforce

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on healthcare in a way that had never been seen before in the UK. Scientists and their role in developing policy was the focus of the media for the first time making effective public engagement from healthcare scientists more important than ever before. While completing science communication activities is now mandatory for trainees and researchers, there is no communication training as part of the formalised training pathway. In the most recent Public Attitudes to Science report 38% of respondents felt scientists were poor communicators and 49% felt that scientists did not put enough effort into showing their work. This demonstrates that providing communication skills training for healthcare scientists is vital to support engagement and build trust with the public and patients. A 3250 outreach and engagement grant was received from the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) to commission at science comedy training session and put on two 'Stand up for Healthcare Science' comedy shows. The fully booked training was run by Dr Steve Cross who helped the participants define what made comedy funny to them and developed comedy sets about their work using emotion to engage audiences. The two Stand up for Healthcare Science shows were performed online each featuring six healthcare scientists and receiving over 670 views on YouTube. Four of the participants have gone onto perform at additional science comedy events as a direct result of attending the SfAM funded science comedy training sessions. Additional participants have reported that the sessions gave them more confidence in their communication and public speaking skills that they would continue to use in future outreach work. This was a highly unusual outreach and engagement project that gave healthcare scientists new skills to effectively engage (and entertain!) their audiences.