Exploring LEGO as a constructivist teaching tool in undergraduate and patient education of cancer survivorship topics.

Abstract

e13787 Background: Cancer survivorship is a multidimensional, chronic condition requiring effective communication, interprofessional collaboration, and patient-centered care. Educational strategies that enable medical students and patients to visualize and articulate complex survivorship challenges remain limited. LEGO(R) bricks have been used for over two decades as facilitation tools to enhance creative thinking and communication; however, their application in medical education and survivorship care is underexplored. Methods: A LEGO(R)-based constructivist methodology was implemented in two contexts. First, the OncoBRICKS(R) program in Portugal delivered LEGO(R) Serious Play(R) workshops to pediatric and adolescent/young adult (AYA) cancer patients and caregivers, eliciting representations of lived survivorship experiences, including emotional, cognitive, and relational dimensions. Second, US medical students (n = 14), participated in a 15-week ASCO-themed survivorship elective engaging with survivors, caregivers, and interdisciplinary team members. At six time points, they constructed LEGO(R) models addressing key survivorship domains: survivor challenges, caregiver needs, social determinants of health, end-of-life issues, and a health system design of a new cancer survivorship center. Student-submitted models, photos and reflective narratives generated six, topic-specific qualitative datasets. Results: LEGO(R) models created by patients and caregivers revealed unmet psychosocial needs, future uncertainty, treatment-related cognitive and emotional burden, disrupted social connectedness, and challenges navigating survivorship pathways, alongside a preference for home-based, technology-enabled, family-centered care. LEGO(R) models created by medical students upon reflecting on real-life encounters with survivors or caregivers improved communication skills and helped coin new communication metaphors. This LEGO(R)-based methodology was very helpful as a new visual thinking strategy tool describing cancer situations and did not feel at all as a burdensome cognitive load. Analysis of photos/reflective narratives suggests Y2 students are highly capable of recognizing survivorship challenges and proposing accurate solutions. Increased creativity, thinking in a different way, collaborative active learning offering new perspectives and visualizing the human experience emerged as common themes of benefit. Conclusions: LEGO(R)-based constructivist learning was feasible, acceptable, and effective for enhancing survivorship communication among patients, caregivers, and undergraduate medical learners. It supported patient-centered perspectives, interprofessional awareness, and holistic understanding of survivorship, representing an innovative strategy aligned with ASCO survivorship competencies.