PC3028: Development of a Curricular Session on Advocacy Through Service as a Pediatric Expert on a Child Fatality Review Team

Background: Advocacy skillset development in pediatric providers is valued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and it of significant importance to the Residency Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Training program requirements for education in community health and child advocacy are outlined by these organizations, but implementation of consistent educational opportunities vary among training institutions.
Colorado has sustained a public health model of child fatality prevention and advocacy through the Child Fatality Prevention System (CFPS). Of the 43 CFPS local review teams in the state, only 13 have pediatric medical providers in service. Objectives of this curriculum are to engage pediatric medical trainees through participation on a child fatality review team and to bolster knowledge and skills necessary to advocate for childhood injury and fatality prevention. They will gain knowledge in identifying structural inequities and disparities contributing to child fatalities and recommend equitable prevention strategies present to legislature.

Methods: Learners on The Children’s Hospital Colorado Pediatric Residency Program’s Advocacy Block and the Child Abuse Pediatrics Elective who consent to participate are given a pre-session survey to assess their baseline knowledge of and interest in the child fatality review team process. They report their understanding of the impact disparities and structural inequities on child fatalities and their confidence level in discussing equitable child fatality prevention recommendations. Participation in a child fatality review team meeting occurs after reviewing pre-session educational material.
After the meeting, learners debrief with facilitators and are interviewed regarding their overall impressions. Content and thematic analysis will be conducted on qualitative data from the interviews. Comparative testing will be performed after the curricular intervention with a post session survey assessing the session’s impact on the same items from the pre-session survey. The post-session survey will also assess overall satisfaction with the curricular session.

Results: This curriculum was implemented in trial sessions in September 2021 and was fully implemented in January 2022. Early reflective data suggest favorable experiences working with community officials in multidisciplinary settings and positive attitude change towards pediatric providers’ roles on child fatality review teams. Early quantitative data suggests general increases in comfort level with discussing child fatality disparities and overall interest in continued engagement with child fatality review processes, though data collection is ongoing as sessions continue throughout 2022.

Conclusion: Pediatric medical trainees' active participation on a public health model of child fatality review team sessions may impact unique advocacy skills, understanding of disparities and structural inequities involved in child fatalities, and overall interest level in continued engagement in child fatality review team service. The knowledge gained from this study will be generalizable and could inform broader curricular modifications for educational strategies to be adapted for development of learners’ advocacy skillset.