Using Comics to Empower End-of-Life Care Conversations
We will create and share comics about end-of-life planning conversations to explore barriers, model success, and share resources.
Profile
I am passionate about: Graphic Medicine, compassionate end-of-life care, dogs, podcasts, Hamilton
A little known fact about me is: I know too much about the dogs of American Presidents
Show my name on the attendees list for events I am attending: Yes
Location: Chicago, IL, United States
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mk-czerwiec
Twitter: https://twitter.com/comicnurse
comics artist, nurse, academic
Graphic Medicine
"Pathologically positive."
I am a nurse who uses comics to contemplate the complexities of illness & caregiving. I am a hospice nurse, comics artist, and the artist-in-residence at Northwestern Medical School. I am also a guest cartoonist for the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation. With Dr. Ian Williams I co-curate GraphicMedicine.org and am a co-author of the Eisner-nominated Graphic Medicine Manifesto (Penn State University Press, 2015). My first graphic memoir will be published in March 2017 by Penn State and titled, "Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371."
Research
0pt
Idea
44pt
Evaluation
1pt
Collaboration
48pt
Total
93pt
We will create and share comics about end-of-life planning conversations to explore barriers, model success, and share resources.
Some early feedback from readers:
"I love this. And it made me realize that I don't know my dad's wishes. I'm pretty sure he has a DNR, but "pretty sure" is not good enough. That is all to say that I'm really glad you're doing this work because it's REALLY needed and important. And I love the way that it's so personal—not preachy. Just sharing a conversation and the accompanying thoughts that MANY people with older parents have—and then giving a resource that people might find helpful if they don't know where to begin."
"My dad's wishes? What are they? Uh, er. Prob DNR but not sure. Yikes. I'm going to show the link to him! I love the user experience map.”
"The idea is fantastic, the comic is quite realistic, suddenly feeling you don't really know what they'd want. Brilliant project."
MORE FEEDBACK WELCOME!
Thanks, Matthew! I agree - the possibilities for this kind of project are vast!
As far as tailoring the comics and the conversation within communities, I think that is essential. Some important barriers to discussing EOL wishes are cultural - and interestingly, comics play different roles in different cultures. It would be great to have, for example, the cartoonist working on a resource for a community arise from that community. Fortunately Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine have found resonance in so many cultural communities, and that brings many cultural resources together for this project.
As for digital presentation, I have much to learn, but right now I'm really enjoying the fairly simple comic presentation of The Nib (the website, their newsletter, social media presence, and their print book) but open to ways collaborators may want, digitally and in print, to make the comics work for their communities. Thanks again for your comment!
MK commented on All Hands-On Deck