Advocacy Curriculum

In 2020 the ACGME required all family medicine residency programs to include advocacy as a required resident milestone, to ensure that all newly trained family physicians can use their voice to speak to the concerns of patient populations and for family medicine as a discipline. In response to this, we created a more robust and immersive longitudinal advocacy curriculum for our residents.

The goals of our 2-year longitudinal advocacy curriculum are:

1. Residents should demonstrate knowledge of the professional responsibility to advocate for patients and for the specialty of family medicine.
2. Residents should be able to describe how stake holders influence and are affected by health policy at the local, state, and federal level.
3. Residents should learn helpful advocacy tools and resources.

Four advocacy symposium events, scheduled on a 2-year rotation, with two symposiums per academic year. Symposium topics to include:

• Patient Advocacy - Health Disparities, Cultural sensitivity, Implicit Bias, Social Determinants of Health, Upstream Medicine
• Congressional/ Community Advocacy – Organized medicine, Legislative contacts and events, Community Outreach
• Continuity of Profession - GME, scope of practice, Future of Family Medicine
• Self-Advocacy - Physician wellness, continuing education, physician reimbursement, physician leadership, career advancement