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Concentration in Advocacy and Activism

Concentration Directors


Patricia Flanagan, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Email: pflanagan@lifespan.org
Box G-RIH
Brown University, Providence
RI 02912-G
Ph: (401) 444-7987

Esther Entin, MD
Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine
Email: ejentin@aol.com
Box G-MHRI
Brown University, Providence
RI 02912-G
Ph: (401) 729-2237

Overview

Alpert Medical School has a longstanding commitment to community involvement and patient advocacy as essential elements in medical education. The mission of Brown Medical School lists two major goals for its graduates: “that they be broadly and liberally educated men and women, and that they view medicine as a socially responsible human service profession.”  Brown Med graduates are known to be scientifically informed, scholastically excellent physicians and devoted patient advocates, who are committed to public service. Building on this student profile, a faculty commitment to advocacy, and a diverse training environment, Brown is well positioned to integrate activism and advocacy as a central part of its new medical training program.

The Scholarly Track in Advocacy/Activism will promote new scholarship that addresses a range of timely issues including:

  • The societal and economic consequences of disparities in the provision of medical care

Collaborative (cross-disciplinary) approaches to advocating for the underserved (to be carried out with our colleagues at the Rhode Island College School of Nursing, the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy, and Roger Williams University Law School)

  • Shaping public policy
  • Advocacy across borders – implications for global health

We intend to take full advantage of the broader Brown community of teachers and researchers, including public policy experts from the Taubman Center, The Center for Study of Urban Education Policy, scholars from the Watson Institute for International Studies, faculty within the Program in Public Health and the International Health Institute.

 

CURRICULUM

Learning Objectives

  • Concentrators will gain an understanding of advocacy and activism on behalf of patients and their communities as an essential part of professionalism.
  • Concentrators will understand the role of structural violence and societal injustice in creating health disparities.
  • Concentrators will gain skills and experience in identifying issues, analyzing issues and policy, organizing advocacy strategies, and advocating for patients and communities with policy makers, stakeholders, with the media, and legislatively.
  • Concentrators will be able to analyze and influence health and social policy to the benefit of patients and their communities.

Concentrators will create an Advocacy Portfolio over the course of their medical school education. The portfolio will contain an individualized Advocacy plan devised by the student and mentor in Spring of Year I, a mentoring agreement delineating the commitment of mentor to student and student to mentor, description, documentation, journaling of immersion experience of the summer between Years I & II, course work from yr public health course, Law and Medicine course or others, reflections from core clerkships in Year III, a capstone project completed and presented by April of Year IV.  The portfolio and capstone project will be judged by a panel of mentors in April of Year IV.

We will also organize an advocacy event week for preclinical research projects and capstone projects to be shared.

Timeline of Activities

Year I: All students will receive experiential opportunities and didactic sessions on a wide range of issues of social justice and health care. This will be done as part of the Doctoring course.
Students interested in pursuing deeper study of advocacy and activism will identify a mentor and propose a project for summer following Year I. The mentor will continue working with the students through completion of the capstone project in Year IV.

Summer between Years I & II: Experiential Learning/ in-depth study. Opportunities may include working with legislators, at the Department of Health, at Community based organizations, policy and advocacy organizations, or studying the history of an issue or topic. In addition, summer immersion experiences should include service learning work with vulnerable populations and their communities.

The rationale for this is that (1) it puts the advocacy into context and is made relevant to the people most affected by it; and (2) it practices an approach that discourages students from being interlopers into a community of need who may take on an issue but with little connection to the cause, process, or outcome.  The summer cultural immersion model, particularly for international studies programs, is used commonly in undergraduate education as a means of informing cultural competency and might be an interesting process driving advocacy competency.

Year II: Students will be encouraged to pursue coursework in electives such as public policy, community health, or other areas related to their issues of interest. Advocacy in Public Health (course#) is offered Wednesday afternoons and would fit the schedule for BMS Year II students. It is strongly encouraged that concentrators take this course. In addition, Medicine, Law, and Ethics is a four-session evening seminar offered each fall and is co-taught with Roger Williams Law students. Concentrators are strongly encouraged to attend.

Preclinical advocacy concentrators will participate in a group "Advocacy Research" project that culminates in a report and press conference. Together they will plan an Advocacy event (“Health and Social Justice Week”) to show case their work and share it with the Brown Community.

Year III:  Throughout their third year core clerkships, advocacy concentrators will keep a case-series related to their chosen issue. They will keep a reflective journal as they complete various clerkships, documenting ways in which the issue they are studying affects different population as they encounter the health care system. Mentors will give feedback, encouragement, and critique as they navigate their clinical clerkships.

Year III students will be welcome to join the seminar series as they are able.

Year IV: Advocacy Concentrators will be encouraged to take electives related to their areas of interest, both clinical electives, study electives, coursework.

Year IV students will be welcome to join the seminar series as they are able.  Year IV students will present their capstone projects at some of these seminars

Year IV: Advocacy Concentrators will produce a capstone project to be shared with classmates.  The capstone project will be (1) something that could be presented at a regional or national meeting (perhaps availing of the case series data they have collected as MSIIIs); or (2) a policy paper with a targeted distribution to key area decision-makers that would be of a mentored-quality that it would be suitable for broader distribution. 

Project Examples

  1. A study of Access to Health Care of Undocumented Children in Rhode Island.
    1. An in-depth analysis of the issue and its demographics in RI
    2. An understanding of policies and regulatory issues that help or hinder access
    3. Identifying and meeting with people in RI including families, community activists, legislators, policy makers and other stakeholders in RI
    4. A study of model programs across the US
    5. A proposal, plan and implementation strategy to improve access
  2. Nutrition and Exercise for Rhode Island Teens
    1. An in-depth analysis of the issue and its demographics in RI
    2. An understanding of laws, policies, and regulations that impact the issue
    3. Identifying groups and initiatives addressing the issue, including teens
    4. Study model programs from around the US
    5. Develop a proposal, plan, and implementation strategy to improve nutrition and exercise among teens in RI
  3. Improving Recreational Opportunities for Special Needs Youth in South Providence
    1. An in-depth analysis of the issue and its demographics. (follow families and kids, map playgrounds, analyze for access and safety)
    2. An understanding of policies, laws, and regulations that impact the issue. Explore planning/zoning processes. Perhaps do “Child heath Impact” study on proposed building or roads projects
    3. Identify groups and initiatives already involved, key stakeholders, policy makers, and neighborhood organizations
    4. Develop a proposal, plan, and implementation strategy to improve opportunities for recreation for Special Needs children in South Providence
  4. For more examples of potential projects, please visit the Patient Advocacy Coordinating Council’s list of "orphaned" projects

2009 Accepted Students & Scholarly Concentration Projects:

Student Project Title Mentor
Watson, Hannah Providence Health Professions Pipeline Program Robert Trachtenberg, MS
Asiaii, Atena    

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF STUDENTS

Five students per year.

FACULTY MENTORS

Potential Faculty/Mentors:
Dr Thomas O’Toole
Dr Scott Allen
Dr Jody Rich
Dr Michael Fine
Dr David Lewis

Funding Opportunities (alternatives to Summer Assistantships)