We improvise every day without knowing it. We take in the world around us and immediately process a response to it. How can we enhance this skill for better, kinder dialogues between medical professionals and their patients? Shana Merlin, an associate at the Center for Health Communication at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and lecturer in the College of Medicine at Texas A&M, discusses why your doctor should be an excellent improviser. She highlights the benefits of improvisational training on patient-doctor relationships arguing that improvisational skills are medical skills.
“You improvise every day, why not get good at it?” is the slogan for Merlin Works Improv, founded by Shana Merlin in 2003 to provide custom training, interactive presentations, and comedy shows around the country to businesses and organizations using the tools and techniques of improvisational theater. Some of Shana’s clients have included Dell, T-Mobile, Silicon Labs, Transwestern and Deloitte. Winner of “Best Improv Teacher” in Austin from the Austin Improv Collective, some of her most requested programs are on the topics of team building, communication, sales, persuasion, leadership, making meetings matter, and creativity.
For the past five years, Shana has focused on bringing improv skills to the medical community. Clients like Methodist Medical Center, Christus Health, Lone Star Dental Seminars, Austin Regional Clinic and Texas Medical Liability Trust have brought her and her co-teacher, Dr. Rob Milman, M.D. in for medical teambuilding, medical communication skills, customer service training and more. Shana is an associate at the Center for Health Communication at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School and was a lecturer in the College of Medicine Texas A&M University and
Shana performs in the improv troupes B Iden Payne Award Winning Girls Girls Girls Improvised Musicals, the Austin Critics Table Award winning duo Get Up, and directed and performed in the nationally touring show Dusk, a Twilight parody. Shana can also do scripted work and performed in the national touring company of The Intergalactic Nemesis. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at [ Ссылка ]
