Biomedical science students’ perception of the use of role-play in learning stress and anger management skills

Introduction: People skills play a crucial role in the professional development of Biomedical Scientists. A laboratory management and professional practice module was offered as part of the people skills development for Biomedical Science first-year students. This study aims to describe the use of role-play to teach stress and anger management skills to Biomedical Science students and reports on students' opinions of role-play as a teaching-learning method. Methods: Students were divided into groups with 10 or 11 students per group. Each group of students presented a role-play for 15 to 20 min. This was followed by reflections by the group, feedback from other groups, and the facilitators. At the end of the session, student feedback was taken by a questionnaire using both closed (using a 5‑point Likert scale) and open‑ended questions. Statistical evaluation of the collected data was carried out using SPSS version 28 for Windows. Results: A total of 96 students from the 2021 and 2022 cohorts participated in the role-plays. The survey was completed by 48 students from the 2021 intake and 33 students from the 2022 intake. The overall response rate was 84.37%. Respondents perceived role-play to be enjoyable, useful, and helpful for developing stress and anger management skills. They wanted role-play to be used as a teaching-learning method in the future. Conclusions: Role-play can be effective to teach stress and anger management skills to undergraduate Biomedical Science first-year students. Keywords: Role-Plays, Stress and Anger Management Skills, Biomedical Science, Professional, Questionnaire, Feedback; Undergraduate