Welcome to the Health Policy and Advocacy Elective
Description - Two or Four Week Block Rotation or Longitudinal Experience
Residents will complete a two or four week rotation or longitudinal experience in Cincinnati focused on health policy and how advocacy for underserved populations relates to the process. This elective can examine local, regional and national perspectives.
Residents will select a health policy or advocacy topic to focus on. Residents will work with faculty lead to draft schedule of key contacts to meet with and readings. At the end of the elective residents will have a final product to present back to the residency.
Third years - If planned well in advance and as part of your Global Health Month, one week may involve the residents attending a health policy conference in Washington, DC and visiting the Graham Center, AAFP Government Relations, and the National Association of Community Health Centers if done as part of their third year Community Medicine / Global Health Elective.
If interested, please submit a request form!
Please contact Dr. Kiesler for any questions or concerns!
Note: This elective will fulfill the required Global Health and Underserved Senior Experience
FM Faculty Lead: Joe Kiesler
Elective Duration: 2 or 4 week block rotation OR longitudinal experience (6 or 12 mo)
Requirements
Prior to the elective being approved the resident must meet with Dr. Kiesler to discuss a potential health policy focus area.
3 months prior to the start of the elective resident will submit their goal and learning objectives for the elective and meet with Dr. Kiesler to start planning the elective.
1 month prior to the elective the resident will meet with Dr. Kiesler to confirm the schedule and objectives
At the end of the elective the resident will submit their policy brief and a reading/resource/key contacts lists.
This rotation will have three primary activities:
Local/Regional Expert Interviews
Advocacy in Action
National Policy Perspective
1. Local/Regional Expert Interviews
Residents will have the unique opportunity to meet face-to-face with regional policymakers and others involved in various aspects of healthcare/health policy for underserved groups. These leaders may include the health commissioner, a Medicaid official, a private foundation program officer, an employer benefit representative and a healthcare administrator. Each will assign a reading in advance and then engage with the resident to discuss the real-world issues and implications of the chosen topic. Contextualizing new learning in this way will help ensure comprehension and retention of these difficult topics.
Residents will be asked to identify a “theme area” for the elective. At the beginning of the month, the resident will meet with one of the faculty members to learn about online local and national data resources. Information gathered will be used as background for their discussions with the Expert Interviewees. Core areas have been identified:
The Local Safety-net
The Uninsured
Medicaid
Medicare
Employer-Based Healthcare
Healthcare quality
Family Medicine as a Specialty
Residents may choose from these core areas or pick one of their own.
Residents are able to download articles, access websites and be part of discussion boards.
2. Advocacy in Action
Each resident will set up a meeting with a representative from our local congressman’s office to discuss the health policy issue on which they have elected to focus. A faculty member will accompany the resident to the meeting. The purpose is for the resident to learn how to make contacts with local legislative leaders and advocate for their own positions.
During the meeting, residents will assess their congressman’s position on the issue and advocate for their own position (if they are different). They will also use the opportunity to learn how legislators gather information they use to make decisions.
Health Policy Outcome:
At the beginning of the month he resident will choose what type of product/outcome they want to accomplish by the end of the 2 or 4 weeks. Besides educating themselves on the selected area of policy, the goal is for them to be able to either educate their colleagues, patients or community. This could be in the form of a noontime talk, an educational brochure, a letter or small article for the community press, etc.
3. National Policy Perspective
If a resident wishes to take this elective as their third year Community Medicine/Global Health elective, the resident will go to Washington, DC to attend a health policy conference and to conduct Expert Interviews at the Graham Center, the AAFP Government Relations Office and the National Association of Community Health Centers. This will offer a concentrated national health policy perspective. Our goal in having the resident meet with policy and advocacy leaders from these three organizations is for them to gain a foundation of how health policy is being created, analyzed and advocated for on a national level.
Specific Goals and Objectives
Goals:
To teach residents about an area of public health policy, giving them the knowledge and skills they will need to advocate for underserved populations.
Objectives
Knowledge
To name key organizations that influence health policy for underserved populations at the local, state and national level
To identify the mechanisms advocacy organizations use to impact health policy for the underserved
To define and describe the health care ‘safety net’ in America and how health policy impacts it.
To list the leading health indicators of Healthy People 2010
To describe how public health data is generated and used in shaping health policy
Attitudes:
To appreciate the impact of health policy on their underserved patients’ lives and health.
To recognize the role of physicians in shaping the health policy for the underserved populations
To feel confident that they can gather data necessary to articulate policy issues
To feel confident in discussing a health policy issue in writing and in person
To view physicians as important advocates for the underserved
Skills:
To identify a particular policy problem of interest related to underserved populations and locate the specific policy groups relevant to that problem.
To locate and assimilate the data necessary to speak articulately on a problem of their interest related to underserved populations.
To work effectively with research, community and advocacy colleagues to promote improved public health in underserved populations.
To successfully communicate health policy positions to local community members, clinicians and interested health representatives