Inspiring Residents to Work ‘Upstream’

Educating for Health AdvocacyDr Farah M Shroff, PhD and Dr Shafik Dharamsi, PhD

Medical Education Monthly RoundsApril 7, 2010

FDIG To create an educational primer on Health

Advocacy (HA) for post-graduate medical educators

Background on HA New concept for medical educators Limited literature

Barriers to HA Lack of formal

recognition

Lack of monetary rewards

Lack of time

Definitions of HA Vary widely Individual patient advocacy Political lobbying Working abroad

If HA were within the educational system, how would it be defined?

Health Advocate Study Interviews of Health Advocates - residents,

practising physicians and medical educators

Qualitative methodology Purposive sampling Questions: Who or what made HA an active

part of their professional lives? Analysis of full transcripts

What Inspires Engagement in HA? Sources of Inspiration:

Family, Travels, Mentors

Community of like-minded peer

Community or volunteer work prior to medical school

Not education in medical school nor residency

Mentoring Some students and residents were

inspired by classroom educators

Exception, not the norm

Not all students were exposed to these mentors

Encouraging HA in Medical School Focusing on medical school opportunities

to foster HA may be fruitful CHIUS DPAS

Can we do more?

HA in Formal Curriculum Should this be a subject that is taught?

Health advocates exist worldwide Professionalization may undermine HA

If HA is taught, what will this look like?

Creating An Environment for HA

Creating an enabling and nurturing environment prior to and during residency training is necessary to sustain the desire to engage in health advocacy

Overview of eBooklet Literature review of HA Profiles of HA champions Pedagogical tools Resources Referrals

Production eBooklet Written feedback from medical educators Feedback from focus groups Launch event in fall 2010—all welcome!

SOTL Conduct a study on

the educational impact of the ebooklet on medical educators

What do you know about HA?

Suggestions?

We welcome your input and suggestions for how to improve this pedagogical primer for UBC medical educators

THANK YOU!!