Filming the Family: A Documentary Film to Educate Clinicians about Family Caregivers of Patients with Brain Tumors

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the educational value of a documentary film about family caregiving for patients with brain tumors. The method used in this study is a pre-post survey among neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologist, and other clinician viewers. Viewers evaluated the film highly and reported an intention to change their practice as a result of watching the film. Following viewing, participants felt more strongly that all families of patients with brain cancers should meet with a social worker (P = 0.01) and that family caregivers greatly impact the health of patients (P = 0.002), and they were less likely to believe that supporting family caregivers is primarily someone else's job (P = 0.009). A documentary film about family caregiving is an effective educational tool to increase awareness among neurosurgery/neuro-oncology clinicians about the importance and needs of family caregivers of patients with brain tumors.