P0061 - The Power Of One: Combining a Community Partnership With a Dynamic Advocacy Curriculum

Background:
Food insecurity (FI) affects 1 in 9 Americans. While pediatric residency programs begun including FI training, many are didactic-based. Engagement with FI requires community-based training in partnership with need-based organizations.

Methods:
In the curriculum, PL1s visit a food bank. Experiential learning is utilized as a conceptual framework, through which knowledge is gained. The day begins with service learning in the urban garden and a discussion on sustainable food sources. The interns create healthy, low-cost meals to instruct their patients and families followed by participation in a simulation that recreates a day in the life of families experiencing FI. Barriers are confronted such as low literacy, immigration status, and food deserts. The day ends with a discussion on connecting families to FI resources and their role as advocates. Evaluation includes assessment of knowledge (based on an AAP Food Security Policy) and attitudes (self-efficacy for advocacy on 5-pt Likert scale) completed pre, post, and 6-12 months post.

Results:
From 2016-2019, 113 interns completed the curriculum. Data was captured for 86 post and 26 thus far in 6-12mo post. There was no significant change in knowledge from pre (79.3% correct) to post (79.5%; P=.95), nor from post to 6-12mo post (76.9%, P=.55). From pre to post, advocacy-related self-efficacy increased significantly by an average of 21.2% (range 7.6-39.6%) (P<.05 for each domain). At 6-12mo post, the improvement was sustained for most domains but decreased for envisioning advocacy as part of one’s career and knowing strategies to advocate for food security (Figure 1). Mean satisfaction score was 4.6 out of 5.

Conclusion:
A community-based experience early in residency can enhance the self-efficacy for addressing FI and is sustained months later. Partnering with a community asset enhanced resident knowledge of local resources. Future improvements will include better incorporation of the AAP Food Security policy to show an increase in knowledge . This curriculum can be replicated in programs seeking to build community partnerships for experiential learning.