Using Comics to Discuss the Geriatric Clerkship Experience

As an engaging and understandable visual medium, comics can facilitate discussions around difficult topics, including aging and death, and be a useful educational tool for medical students. To achieve this end, a geriatrics clerkship program director implemented a health humanities curriculum that included a partnership with the health science library. The resulting book club gave medical students a place to discuss the clerkship and helped them draw connections between their experiences and a graphic memoir on the perspective of a caregiver to elderly parents. The librarian's background using comics for instruction and the director's expertise in geriatric medicine created an innovative new educational method.