This website has been designed to assist individuals who seek to organize, implement, and evaluate educational programs at their medical centers using "Wit." The site utilizes the project team’s experience coordinating educational programs using the theater production of "Wit" at 32 sites in the U.S. and Canada from 2000-2001, research using focus groups of medical students and resident trainees who attended theater performances and film screenings, and input from a national advisory panel of end-of-life experts.
The site is divided into three main sections. The first section provides background material on "Wit", including its Pulitzer Prize-winning author Margaret Edson, the theater production of "Wit", and the HBO film adaptation of "Wit". Included in this section is a some critical commentary on the play from the medical community, which should provides valuable handouts for trainees to review prior to or following the film screening.
If you are considering adding "Wit" to the curriculum at your institution we strongly suggest that you enroll in the "Wit" Film Project, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-sponsored project that will help make "Wit" a permanent part of medical school curricula across the country. Enrollment will allow you to take advantage of our project’s experience using "Wit" with some 6,000 health care professionals and trainees, and will allow us to evaluate the film’s impact on trainees’ emotions, attitudes, and interest in end-of-life care. Enrollment in the project is easy – simply complete the brief registration information and our project personnel will contact you to provide you with a password that will give you access to all of the materials on the website. Visitors to the site need not register to view background information on "Wit" and the project, but only project enrollees will have access to the full range of program and evaluation materials.