Child Advocacy Track
University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital has a long history of advocacy, beginning with the founding mission of our hospital to care for underserved children, and carried on today by our current residents and nationally recognized faculty. Recognizing the wealth of advocacy efforts ongoing at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, we created the Child Advocacy Track to ensure that residents who desire in-depth advocacy training can experience all that UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital has to offer over their three years of residency.
Child Advocacy Track Curriculum
The Child Advocacy Track aims to develop pediatric leaders in advocacy with a strong commitment to underserved communities and community health. Residents engage in a three-year longitudinal curriculum that teaches core advocacy principles while supporting individualized areas of focus. Monthly meetings foster learning, collaboration, and fellowship among advocacy-minded residents, who also have opportunities to lead sessions and share their expertise.
Individualized Advocacy
Residents begin in the first year to identify an individual focus. They connect with faculty mentors and community partners to develop a scholarly project with an advocacy focus. The resident individual advocacy project is the pinnacle of the program, and each resident is required to complete a project and share their developed expertise, typically during Pediatric Resident Science Day. In addition, residents create an Advocacy Portfolio to document the development of expertise in advocacy and their progress in the program.
Leadership and Educational Opportunities
The input of the Child Advocacy Track residents is essential to the success of the program. Residents participate in ongoing program evaluation, and their input is used to shape the future direction of the program. Child Advocacy Track residents have multiple opportunities to act as leaders and educators to their peers throughout the three years of the program. In addition, our residents have advocated for child health at the local, state and national levels.
Resident Projects
Current Child Advocacy Track residents have a diverse array of interests, ranging from refugee health to firearm safety to obesity prevention in early childhood. Previous residents have successfully obtained grants from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other agencies to support their individual projects. Many have incorporated their advocacy work as an essential component of their chosen careers.
Recent Child Advocacy Track Project Topics Include:
- Quality Improvement to Empower LGBTQIA+ Youth in the Inpatient Setting
- Pathways to Health for Cleveland Refugees
- Implementation of a Safe Firearm Storage Curriculum for Pediatric Residents
- Quality Improvement to Increase Use of Interpreter Services for Hospitalized Families
Advocacy Community
Our residents become part of an advocacy network within the UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and the Case Western Reserve University communities. Book clubs, movie nights, and potlucks are held at the homes of residents and attending physicians throughout the year. There are opportunities to participate in networking and small group activities within the university community and local community.
Program Details
Interested residents are invited to apply to the program during the first weeks of intern year. Graduates of the Child Advocacy Track receive a Certificate of Excellence in Child Advocacy during our annual resident graduation celebration.
Contacts
Laura Schapiro, MD
Co-Director, Child Advocacy Track
Laura.Schapiro@UHHospitals.org
Lindsay Zaremba, MD
Co-Director, Child Advocacy Track
Lindsay.Zaremba@UHHospitals.org