6-27-08
CHONY Community Pediatrics Legislative Advocacy Curriculum
The goal of these sessions is to teach CHONY residents HOW to effectively develop and
dissipate an advocacy message and to increase their AWARENESS of advocacy
surrounding children’s health issues. These sessions aim to introduce residents to
legislative advocacy by . . .





Exposing residents to current legislative efforts, issues, and needs
surrounding children's health.
Teaching techniques for researching current legislative issues that pertain to
children’s health and advocating for children’s health.
Providing a forum (real and/or virtual) for residents to share their work on current
issues, legislation, and advocacy efforts with other residents, attendings, and medical
students thereby . . .
Fostering awareness about legislative advocacy among all residents and the CHONY
community and . . .
Empowering CHONY pediatricians to be active advocates for children’s health
issues, now and in the future
The curriculum will consist of 5 sessions during the Community Pediatrics rotation of
residents’ second year:


Session 1: Introduction to Legislative Advocacy: Didactic Session and
Discussion led by one Faculty Facilitator each month, guided by standardized
presentation (Powerpoint).
GOALS:
o Explain expectations of resident during this curriculum
o Understand the principles of legislative advocacy: At the end of the
session, each resident should be able to answer the following questions:
 What is legislative advocacy?
 How can pediatricians be legislative advocates? Why should we
be?
 What resources are available for researching legislative issues?
 What strategies can you use to advocate for children’s health?
o Identify an advocacy project to accomplish during sessions 3-5. (With the
help of the session lecturer, the resident will identify a legislative
advocacy project that coincides with their own interests and, ideally, with
CHONY’s legislative agenda. The faculty mentor should provide guidance
during this discussion to help the resident choose an appropriately
specific topic focused on current policy controversies. If CHONY’s Center
for Child Healthy Advocacy is currently involved in a project that they
believe the resident would learn from participating in, they may suggest
this as the resident’s project. The resident may spend part of the session
doing preliminary reading—see suggested child health policy sites at
www.communityped.org, login: community, password: pediatrics—and
then return to the mentor at the session’s end for 10-15 minutes to finalize
the project plan.)
o Potential topics include:
6-27-08












Childhood Obesity (e.g. healthier school lunches, financing
prevention programs, increased exercise space, or other project)
Pediatric Device Development
Pediatric Drug Safety
Emergency Medical Services for Children (current disaster plans
and emergency care systems often overlook children's
needs...discuss importance of reauthorization and funding)
Pediatric Electronic Health Record
Medical Liability and the Pediatrician
Medical Home Initiative
Asthma or other environmental policy issues
Media Safety (TV, violence in video games, etc)
Injury Prevention
Pediatric AIDs (and Ryan White reauthorization)
Self-directed learning: Review the APA Advocacy presentation
and the video on How a Bill Becomes a Law
Session 2: Getting Familiar with Legislative Advocacy—a “Case Study” on SCHIP
 Read provided primer documents on SCHIP
 During this reading, the resident should consider the following questions:
o What is SCHIP, and how does it differ from Medicaid? How is it
structured? Why is it constantly being debated and renewed?
o Why do we as pediatricians need to know about SCHIP? How does it
impact pediatric patients, nationwide and in New York?
o What current controversies are national and state legislators debating
regarding SCHIP (see Additional Resources available on website for upto-date information)?
o What can we, as pediatricians, do to strengthen SCHIP?
o Where can I look in the future to keep myself informed about ongoing
policy developments in SCHIP and how they might affect my patients?
 Using an available “Action Center” template (or your own structure), compose a
letter to your state or national legislators explaining why SCHIP reauthorization
and/or full funding of SCHIP is always a priority for pediatricians and their
patients.
Sessions 3-4: Researching Policy and Developing an Advocacy Strategy
 Research advocacy topic chosen in Session 1 to learn about recent history, current
controversies, policies under consideration around this topic.
o To guide analysis, residents should consider the following:




Define the issue and key stakeholders.
Why is this topic important for all pediatricians to know about and
advocate for?
What current legislation is being considered on a state or national level
regarding this topic?
Does our institution or our new Center for Children’s Health
Advocacy (CCHA) have a stance on this topic? Should they?
(Consider drafting memo to CCHA if you believe they should . . .)
6-27-08







Does the AAP, the AMA, or any other physician specialty
organization have a stance on this issue? Why did this organization
take their particular stance?
After researching the issue, what is your stance on it?
What can fellow residents do if they are interested in supporting
legislation around your topic? (e.g. refer to Lindsey's website and
write a letter, refer to AAP website with primer, etc.)
Design a 15-20 minute presentation aimed to educate other residents, attendings,
and medical students about this issue and motivate their participation in advocacy
surrounding it. Consider including in your presentation why this topic is important
to you personally.
Depending on CCHA activities that month, your sessions may include meetings
with local legislators or other community organizations. In this case, you can
focus on information from or lessons learned in these meetings in your
presentation.
Communicate with your Faculty Facilitator and with Violet Moss
(vim9041@NYP.ORG) of the CHONY Center for Child Health Advocacy, as you
work on your project. Both are available to help you identify resources, clarify
confusing issues, and focus your presentation. You MUST email your Powerpoint
to your Faculty Facilitator AT LEAST 3 days prior to its presentation for review.
OPTIONAL (but encouraged): Prepare materials to facilitate their participation
(e.g. letter for a letter-writing campaign, request for personal stories relevant to a
particular bill, petition to a legislator, invitation to upcoming CCA event or other
public meeting).
Session 5: Sharing Your Advocacy Message, Engaging Others
 15-20 minutes: Presentation (during Noon Conference) of Advocacy Project
aimed at addressing list of questions from Sessions 3-4
 OPTIONAL: 10-15 minutes: letter-writing campaign, petition-signing, invitation
to upcoming public meeting, or other activity to engage others in your advocacy
 Send your Powerpoint presentation for posting on Community Pediatrics website
and the Web-Based Curriculum. Include three links to relevant web pages that
other residents can use to find developments and updates on your topic in the
future.
Ongoing support during this project will be provided by Faculty Facilitator, with Violet
Moss available as well depending on her availability (vim9041@NYP.ORG). These mentors
will be available by email (and hopefully will be willing to have brief meetings with the
resident during the rotation as needed).
Residents who wish to continue their advocacy work after the rotation will be strongly
encouraged to do so!
***To Join AAP Action E-List, go to http://capwiz.com/nycac/mlm/signup/