Community outreach & advocacy
Advocacy at Advocate Children's Hospital - Park Ridge
As a pediatrician, you will have instant credibility as a child advocate. There are several experiences that will enable you to feel comfortable in this role during your training at Advocate Children's Hospital-Park Ridge. Below is a brief overview of child advocacy efforts at ACH-PR:
Community pediatrics and public health rotation
During your PGY1 year, residents complete a rotation in community pediatrics. This is an opportunity for residents to understand their role as advocates for children within the larger public health system. Residents participate in a variety of experiences including:
- Learning about the application process for WIC
- Shadowing a city lead inspector
- Fielding calls at Illinois Poison Control
- Following an Illinois state's attorney into court on child welfare cases
- Working with a domestic violence advocate in court regarding orders of protection
- Visiting a respite center and crisis nursery
- Shadowing a pediatric dentist
- Attending an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting with a family at the local school district
During the PGY-2 year, the community rotation involves a larger community service project with your clinic cohort. You will spend your week learning about one organization and organizing a service project during your week and present at the end of the week to the rest of the program.
We are constantly adding to and adjusting the experiences to best prepare our residents to take advantage of the most up-to-date resources for their patients.
School-based health
ACH-PR supports our local school-based health centers (SBHC). The SBHCs provide comprehensive physical and mental health services to the students at Maine East High School, the Glenbrook School District and Wheeling School District. The school is home to students from over 50 different cultural groups that speak over 75 different languages! Annually, residents and students from the high school travel to Springfield to participate in "Advocacy Day" in which they lobby the legislature on the benefits of school-based health and the barriers to adolescent health access. Residents work at the health center during their adolescent medicine and school health rotations in the PGY1 and PGY2 years.
Ronald McDonald Care Mobile
The ACH Care Mobile (literally a clinic on wheels!) serves children without insurance or without access to care in our surrounding communities. We provide physical exams and vaccinations five days a week. Residents spend time seeing patients on the Care Mobile throughout all three years of residency. Through this experience, our residents get an opportunity to understand the importance of population health, do additional screening for social determinants of health, and serve the community in which we live and work.
Refugee clinic
Within the last few years our very own residents have spearheaded an initiative to work with a local organization to provide initial medical examinations and immunizations to newly arrived refugees. The clinic has empowered our residents to advocate for those underserved in medicine and understand the multilayered dynamics of refugee medicine.
Reach Out and Read program
The resident continuity clinic hosts the nationally acclaimed "Reach Out And Read" program, which distributes a developmentally appropriate book at all well child visits from ages 6 months to 4 years. The program increases literacy awareness for your young patients and their families. Research shows that when the physician gives a "prescription for reading" to the family, it increases the likelihood that books will be utilized in the home. Read more about this fantastic program at http://www.reachoutandread.org/