Advocating for patients through media: a curriculum designed to increase resident’s confidence in utilizing media to engage in advocacy and patient education.

Background: It is well known that media plays an influential role in healthcare. From shaping public opinion to driving health policy, the modern day clinician cannot escape it. However, many physicians have received little to no training in using media as an advocacy and education tool. While studies have been done looking into opinions of residency advocacy curriculums, no studies have addressed the efficacy of implementing a physician media training curriculum.

Methods: The study is a prospective cohort design. A pre-participation survey was administered to all pediatrics residents at UCD and those who attended the first media training. The post- intervention survey was administered 3 months after the training curriculum. The media training consists of 3, two hour workshops on topics including how to write an op-ed, how to talk with TV/News media, and how to use social media for advocacy. The surveys used qualitative and quantitative metrics. Quantitative measures assessed prior amount of media training, physician comfort with each media topic on a 5 point likert a scale. In addition, we collected the number of media engagements for each attendee within the prior year.

Results: Fifty-six participants returned pre-participation surveys. 24 completed the post participation survey. 75% of participants had received one hour or less of training using media for advocacy. The participation group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in the self-reported comfort within all topics from the pre to the post survey. Including, Op-ed: χ2 (4, N= 56) = 13.48, p= 0.009. Participating in an interview: χ2 (4, N= 56) = 9.72, p= 0.046. Posting on social media: χ2 (4, N= 56) = 13.87, p= 0.008. The number of participants who had written 1 or more op-ed increased from 14% to 21%, p = 0.439, OR = 1.62 (95% CI: 0.47-5.58). Participants who had participated in 1 or more interview increased from 5% to 21%, p = 0.051 OR = 4.537 (95% CI: 0.99-20.74). The number of participants who had posted on social media to advocate was stable from 52% to 54%, p = .653 OR = 1.226 (95% CI: 0.5-2.98).

Conclusion: We piloted an innovative media advocacy curriculum that demonstrated Increased comfort in op-ed writing, television/news interviews and social media from pre-participation to post. In addition, we saw an increased number of published op-eds and television appearances by residents, although this did not reach statistical significance.

Resident Statement of Involvement: Applied for initial CPTI grant, organized all workshops, obtained IRB exemption, developed and distributed survey.