96. MULTI-INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH TO ADVOCACY TRAINING AMONG PEDIATRIC RESIDENTS

Background The ACGME and AAP prioritize patient advocacy because it provides a way to move beyond individual solutions to create and be part of broader systemic change. Advocacy training allows residents to better understand how community variables affect health. Yet, many pediatricians report receiving inadequate advocacy training. Studies have demonstrated an improved experience when residents across training programs collaborate on advocacy projects. The 4 Louisiana pediatric residency programs implemented a combined advocacy curriculum to cultivate cooperation and inspire broader systemic change. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the impact of the statewide advocacy curriculum on residents’ confidence in their ability to advocate effectively for patients and families. Methods Residents from the 4 programs selected a main focus for their advocacy project and determined goals for advocacy rotation. During the rotation, residents met weekly via conference call to discuss progress, accomplishments, and next steps as they received feedback from peers and recommendations from mentors. Residents engaged in 8 different communication tools while furthering their site's delineated advocacy goals. To assess curriculum efficacy, residents from 2 programs were surveyed about their thoughts and attitudes regarding advocacy and asked to self-assess their advocacy skills. Two residency programs did not participate in the evaluation. Survey responses of residents who had participated in the collaborative curriculum (n=11) were compared to those who had not participated in the curriculum (n=33). Results Survey items with statistically significant differences are shown in Table 1. Other items changed in the expected direction but failed to reach significance. Conclusion The collaborative advocacy curriculum led to significantly improved confidence in identifying pediatric health issues, finding resources to advocate effectively for change, communicating about the identified issues, and developing action plans to address community health needs. Future goals include curriculum enhancement to areas in need of improvement.