EducationTraining in Social Determinants of Health in Primary Care: Does it Change Resident Behavior?
Section snippets
Methods
This was a nonrandomized mixed-methods study of an educational intervention. It was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the CCHMC. The study was conducted from June 2008 to June 2009 (Figure 1).
Participant Demographics
A comparison of the intervention and control groups demonstrated no significant differences in gender, age, or prior work/volunteer experience in a legal aid or social work office.
Attitude Survey Questions
The postsurvey was completed by 17 of 18 (94%) control subjects. The preintervention and postintervention surveys were completed by 18 of 20 (90%) intervention subjects.
Attitude and comfort assessing families, evaluated by preintervention and postintervention surveys, changed positively on multiple issues: comfort
Discussion
Pediatric residents in continuity clinic often treat children from underserved populations with unmet basic needs that may impact their health, yet traditional medical education does not address these issues. The new interdisciplinary social determinants of health curriculum developed for this study successfully improved resident comfort and knowledge of social determinants of health and community resources, and increased their EMR documentation of social questions and referrals to Child HeLP.
Conclusion
Continuity clinic patients are frequently from underserved backgrounds and may have a variety of unmet social and legal needs that can impact health, yet traditional medical training does not address these issues. Our new social determinants of health curriculum focuses on these issues and the community resources available to help resolve them. This curriculum improved pediatric residents’ comfort with screening and both knowledge of issues and community resources, and increased their
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the PPCC continuity clinic residents for their interest in learning and in improving patient care.
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