Reflections on vulnerability and resilience through a film: a distance learning experience conducted in form of interactivity

Abstract

Introduction The reorganization of someone’s way of life, the ability to transform a painful or simply stressful event in a process of learning and growing following a traumatic event, involves two fundamental subjects: vulnerability and resilience. The aim of this study is to describe students’ experiences related to the issues of resilience and vulnerability in order to explore the reflections stimulated by the use of films. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, an elective educational proposal for the Bachelor of Science program in Nursing at the University of Turin, that has been realized since 2014, but was conducted in 2020 in the form of distance learning.

Materials and Methods: We analyze, through the method of content analysis, the students’ experiences expressed after a narrative mandate and a reflective exercise. Personal experiences about disability have been harvested before watching the film. The opinions about resilience and vulnerability are later analyzed, using the film tool as a stimulus for personal reflection. 

Results: There are three themes in which the qualitative analysis converge: the experience before someone’s disability, the reflections on resilience through the proposal and filmic learning tool, care strategies and resilience in the proposed film. The distance learning modality was appreciated by the students who felt a more direct relationship with the expert patient, greater interactivity and more intense emotional dimension compared to the editions conducted in the presence, even if they lived "in the solitude" of their workstations.

Conclusions: The online event, with the film as a tool and the contribution of the expert patient, has been useful in dealing with issues such as vulnerability and resilience in order to recognize the potential benefits and assistance focused on the patient’s needs and problems.