National University welcomes MK Czerwiec, the “Comic Nurse,” who will be speaking at noon on Tuesday, March 10, in D139. Ms. Czerwiec will introduce the audience to the field of graphic medicine, and how creating and reading comics can help doctors and patients communicate important information on illness.

Ms. Czerwiec is a nurse who started drawing comics as a way to deal with her emotions that arose while working in one of the nation’s first AIDS hospital wards. She has since become a nationally known teacher and speaker, and is one of the founders of “Graphic Medicine”, which uses comic books and graphic novels to document & communicate aspects of the healing relationship.

She is currently an artist in residence at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, and is an adjunct professor at Columbia College in the department of creative writing.  She is also co-manager of GraphicMedicine.org, and a guest cartoonist for the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation Blog. You can explore some of her comics and other work at her website http://www.comicnurse.com.

The presentation is sponsored by NUHS faculty Dr. Stephanie Draus and Dr. Robert Shiel on behalf of the Doctor-Patient Relations class. “MK and I are part of a larger collaboration focused on using the arts – specifically creative practice – to train medical students,” says Dr. Draus. All faculty, students and staff are welcome to attend.