Community & advocacy
"...it is not enough, however, to work at an individual bedside in a hospital. In the near or dim future, the pediatrician is to sit in and control school boards, health departments, and legislatures. A legitimate advisor to the judge and jury, and a seat for the physician in the republic is what the people have a right to demand."
— Dr. Abraham Jacobi (Founder of American Pediatrics, 1904)
In addition to several longitudinal experiences throughout all three years of residency, every resident spends one month of their residency during their second year dedicated to the practice of community and advocacy. During this rotation, some of the experiences include:
- Almost Home
- Chaplain
- Child Abuse Evaluations
- Child-Life shadow
- Children’s Advocacy Center – Justice
- Community Health Worker
- Cook County Juvenile Court
- EI Home Visit
- Fussy Baby
- Healthy Active Living Program
- Illinois Chapter of the AAP; Resident Education in Children Advocacy Seminar
- Lactation Specialist
- Narrative Medicine
- Oak Lawn’s Children’s Museum
- Oak Lawn Library
- Oral Health Clinic
- Pediatric Complex Care
- Poison Control Center
- Ronald McDonald Care Mobile
- Shriners
- Social Worker shadow
- Trauma Recovery Center
- WIC Office visit
Community outreach
Our residents are active in both advocacy and community outreach.
We have a very active, resident-developed and run Pediatric Advocacy Group. This group meets frequently throughout the year. Each week during academic half days, someone from the Advocacy Group spends 5 minutes talking about a topic in pediatric advocacy. The residents use this time to develop their day-to-day advocacy skills and educate each other. Topics from the last year have included DACA, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, environmental racism, pediatric product recalls, and much more. This group also has a number of large projects each year – in 2020, for example, the residents helped coordinate a “Get Out the Vote” campaign.
Many of our residents are also involved in volunteerism. Our residents created a partnership with an organization called Urban Reformers and set up a health fair. We also have residents who volunteer within their communities on local youth boards and with other organizations (such as Big Brothers Big Sisters). Pre-COVID, many residents also went overseas to volunteer at a clinic in Guatemala with other members of our hospital team.
Our program’s support of community activism and volunteerism are often major factors in why many medical students choose this residency program.