A Graphic Medicine Reading Experience for Undergraduate Nursing Students

Abstract

Health humanities, a growing field combing humanities and health sciences, aids healthcare students and providers in self-reflection, empathy, personal well-being, communication skills, and observational skills. Developing these skills is important for students as they form their professional identity. Graphic medicine (comic narratives that involve health topics) is one way to integrate health humanities into the classroom. I investigated how reading a graphic medicine novel enhances undergraduate nursing students' empathy and self-reflection skills. LGBTQIA+-focused efforts on campus informed my selection of the graphic medicine book First Year Out: A Transition Story by Sabrina Symington. With no LGBTQIA+-focused nursing course available, the community health practicum course provided a suitable setting and supportive instructors for this study.