Adopting a Pedagogy of and Education of The Heart: Strategies for engaging FY health sciences students by evoking understanding of the lived experience of future patientsand practice

First year health sciences students, most of whom who have not yet had any opportunities for professional practice, face major challenges in making links between theoretical content and future health care practice. This project outlines a pedagogical strategy designed to respond to the challenges of teaching first year topics related to social determinants of health to multidisciplinary undergraduate students studying nursing, paramedics and allied health professions. Film and arts-based assignments were used as a means of exposing students to the tensions between patients’ lived experience of illness and the boundaries of professional practice. Earlier research among students as to the effectiveness of this strategy has now led us to conduct research among staff teaching in the topic as to the strengths, weaknesses, barriers and techniques required in adopting and assessing this pedagogical approach.We report on our initial findings.