Immersing Students in Graphic Medicine! Bringing a New Elective to Life

Background: This poster describes the attempts and experiences introducing a new Immersion Elective for freshman medical students as part of the spring 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. Two faculty members from the health sciences library at a public medical school combined talents to present an eight hour elective for up to eight freshman medical students to choose as part of the spring semester Immersion course. The project topic, graphic medicine, was new to the school and was based on Comics for Health and Medicine, one of the educational resources from the National Library of Medicine’s 2018 Graphic Medicine exhibit.

Description: Following a call to sponsor and propose projects for Immersion 2020 in late October a proposal topic was submitted in mid-November, which was immediately requested in final proposal form by end of the month. The project’s title, goal, description, sign-up limit, and coordinator were presented as one of the electives freshman medical students could select as part of their Immersion 2020 courses. Coordinators were notified in early January of class size and attendees names to contact to schedule the preparatory assignments and in-person sessions between January and May. Students were required to complete an evaluation in mid-May about each course taken as part of their Immersion 2020 experience.

Conclusion: Three students selected Graphic Medicine for Immersion 2020. Three in-person sessions were planned but due to the pandemic only one was held. All three preparatory assignments were distributed. Student feedback was favorable for revising to offer as part of Immersion 2021. Following revisions, Graphic Medicine was again offered as an elective. Six students have selected Graphic Medicine for Immersion 2021. Three in-person sessions are planned during February – April. Results will be presented in the poster.