2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Undergraduate biomedical and bioengineering programs increasingly utilize immersive clinical experiences to bridge the gap between academic coursework and real-world clinical challenges. These programs have demonstrated efficacy across numerous institutions, though scheduling remains challenging, particularly at universities operating on cooperative education schedules with alternating six-month academic and work periods. To address this constraint, a unique four-day clinical immersion program funded by the National Institutes of Health was developed in 2023. The program enrolls fourth-year students interested in rural health in a semester-long preparatory course, facilitates a four-day clinical immersion trip to rural healthcare sites, and engages students in developing clinically relevant capstone projects based on observed needs. This short-term model offers potential for developing critical engineering skills at reduced cost compared to traditional extended programs.
Program impact is evaluated across three student groups: Immersed (trip participants), Involved (non-participants working on trip-derived projects), and Control (students on unrelated projects). Anonymous self-efficacy surveys assess confidence across twelve engineering tasks following capstone completion. Results from two cohorts (2024-2025, n=101 respondents) show Involved students demonstrated significantly higher confidence in prototype building (p=0.05) and Immersed students reported elevated confidence in immersion-taught skills. Qualitative analysis revealed Immersed students gained deeper understanding of complex rural health challenges and reported mostly positive experiences. However, skill dissemination from Immersed to Involved students proved limited. This work-in-progress examines two cohorts of an ongoing five-year program, demonstrating that abbreviated clinical immersion experiences can effectively enhance student self-efficacy and clinical understanding.