Normally a staple of the childhood toybox, new research has found that LEGO bricks can be an effective ice breaker between midwifery and medical students.

Led by midwifery teaching specialists Liz McNeill from Flinders University and Dr. Lyn Gum from the University of South Australia, the study found using the ubiquitous colored blocks made the students more comfortable working together and prepared them for later professional collaborations.

“In the past, I have always had a small box of LEGO pieces on my desk that was well used when people needed to debrief as it provided an alternative to needing to maintain eye contact when feeling vulnerable,” says McNeill, a midwifery academic at Flinders University’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

“By adapting the principles of LEGO SERIOUSPLAY during a series of workshops between midwifery and medical students, we wanted to see if we could incorporate the use of the blocks as a way of breaking the ice.

“In hospital settings, there are often challenging power dynamics that exist between midwives and obstetricians, but if we start early enough, we can set our students up for future constructive collaborations.”

Developed in the 1990s by Swiss professors Johan Roos and Bart Victor, LEGO SERIOUSPLAY is a facilitated meeting, communication, and problem-solving method that uses LEGO bricks as a tool to encourage creative thinking and dialogue.

Across workshops held between 2018 and 2020 between Flinders University 2nd and 3rd-year midwifery students and 3rd and 4th-year medical students about to enter an obstetric rotation, the researchers tasked the students with collaboratively building a birthing room using LEGO pieces.

The task encouraged discussion and negotiation among the students, while they were also able to share and appreciate different perspectives on birthing care.

Pre and post-workshop surveys were then conducted to ask students about their experiences using the toys as a learning tool for communication and collaboration, with the results now published in the journal Nurse Education in Practice,

While the students expressed skepticism at the start, post-workshop feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

“We enjoyed listening to the myriad of conversations between the mixed groups of students, including the sharing of their professional birthing experiences, perspectives and scopes of practice while trying to prioritize the placement of equipment and characters,” says Dr. Lyn Gum, who conducted the research while at Flinders University but is now Senior Lecturer in Nursing at UniSA.

“We saw immediate benefits of the icebreaker, noting that students continued to chat with each other during the meal breaks.”

Feedback showed the students thought the activity helped to break down perceived barriers between the disciplines, facilitated open dialogue, and enhanced mutual understanding.

“The interactive nature of the LEGO exercise encouraged students to reflect on the various priorities in midwifery and medical care and this led to an improved appreciation of each other’s roles,” says McNeill.

“I have since had midwifery students throughout the year comment to me that they had seen ‘their’ medical students in the hospital and how they felt comfortable re-engaging in conversation with them.”

The authors say the findings highlight that integrating LEGO into educational settings can be an effective strategy in teaching, especially for those destined for clinical settings.

“Interprofessional socialization is important for breaking down boundaries between professions, especially those who work in high-stakes medical fields,” says McNeill.

“Our icebreaker is transferrable to other interprofessional contexts when wanting to break down the barriers between professions, and promote role clarity and collaboration, and what better place to start than with our students.”