The final segment of the course is an especially stressful period for medical students, as it places them vis à vis a range of anguishing situations: the end of their days as students, the acquisition of new responsibilities and residency exams. So as to help them through this stage, the Botucatu Medical School (FMB - Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu) has developed a number of sheltering strategies for its students. This paper describes one activity in which psychodrama was used to facilitate the expression of the feelings and emotions experienced by students at the end of their course. For two years running, sociodrama sessions were held with all the students in the sixth (i.e., last) year of the Botucatu Medical School course. Fairy tales were used as a tool for students to identify their evolution at the institution and the moment they were experiencing. Dramatization of the fairy tales enabled students to share their experiences and worries, many of which where common to several of them and typical of their context. The analysis of the fairy tales focused mainly on projective aspects of the groups; the conclusions pointed to the need for a larger number of arenas for meetings and interchange between students and teachers.
Medical education; mental health; psychodrama; sociodrama; internship; residence
