Exploring Student Experiences in a Transdisciplinary Clinical Immersion Course on Needs Identification in Veteran and Service Member Healthcare Settings.

Background: As the number of BME clinical immersion experiences expands across university curricula, there is a growing opportunity for BME educators to share practical insights gained from implementing clinical immersion courses. Despite the growing scholarship exploring BME clinical immersions, a significant need for robust exploration remains as we work to understand the impact of such programs on student learning. Purpose: To address this gap, the purpose of this work is to describe the design, implementation, and assessment of a BME course focused on clinical immersions in Service Member and Veteran healthcare environments. Methods: We designed, implemented, and assessed student experiences in a new technical elective course in our undergraduate BME curriculum entitled Results: Overall, students had a high appreciation for the clinical immersion experience and benefited from their participation in the course in terms of their ability to problem solve, identify healthcare-related needs of Veterans, communicate with patients and providers, and work effectively in transdisciplinary teams wherein complementary roles of engineers and designers are valued. Conclusion: Structured clinical immersion experiences that incorporate transdisciplinary teams and scoped healthcare environments promote student learning and professional development.