Background: Medical-legal partnerships add lawyers to healthcare teams to increase patient access to legal services that improve health. The Capitol Hill Day project at the Georgetown University School of Medicine provides second-year medical students with the opportunity to gain the type of interprofessional advocacy experience supported by medical-legal partnerships. Students work in teams with law students to prepare for meetings with political representatives on health justice policies of their choosing. The program helps students experience the role doctors can play as health advocates beyond the patient level. The objective of embedding a medical librarian in the program is to strengthen the quality of evidence used in student advocacy efforts.
Description: While preparing for meetings with their representatives, students received guidance from faculty experts in medicine and law. The 2020 students were the first cohort to have the additional support of an embedded medical librarian available both on Canvas and in person at planning sessions. The embedded librarian delivered an information literacy presentation about finding evidence for health advocacy at the first session, and she facilitated small group discussions in two subsequent meetings. She also created a health justice Libguide that compiles evidence and data on the most popular student advocacy topics. The students produced an evidence-based advocacy handout and generated talking points to support their discussions with representatives. Capitol Hill Day meetings took place in March 2020. The program was assessed via student survey, and library support will continue for future cohorts with an increased emphasis on virtual outreach opportunities.
Conclusion: Embedding librarians within student advocacy projects provides new opportunities to support student development of evidence-based research skills. Health justice collaborations also provide libraries with the opportunity to support organizational social justice initiatives that have a lasting impact on community health.