Community outreach & advocacy

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

Pediatric patient.

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

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.  Residents keep a narrative journal during this rotation to reflect on their role as child advocates.

School-based health

LACH-PR supports two local school-based health centers. The SBHCs provide comprehensive physical and mental health services to the students at Maine East High School and the Glenbrook 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 PGY2 clinic week adolescent medicine 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.

Healthy steps for young children initiative

Healthy Steps is a nationally recognized program which promotes the healthy growth and development of children from birth to age five. The model is family centered and employs a strength based philosophy to primary care. The first three years of life are critically important to a child's emotional and cognitive development. The medical care that these children receive should enhance growth, educate families, promote nurturing relationships and offer support and resources when needed. During your training, the Healthy Steps program will teach you how to provide developmentally appropriate primary care.

The Healthy Steps model includes several components:

  • Visits with your continuity patient's during which you will work collaboratively with a developmental specialist in providing support and resources to families
  • Knowledge on integrating developmental, social, and postpartum depression screenings and subsequent referrals into your practice

Parenting Pals

Parenting Pals provides group well child care to children from birth through age two. Groups of 6-8 babies, along with their parent/guardian, have 9 sessions over 2 years where they receive all of their care, including immunizations. Groups are co-facilitated by a resident, an attending and our developmental specialist. Each resident in our program has their own group, helping families build a community together as their children grow and find connection and support. We are one of only a few pediatric residency clinics in the country that has incorporated Centering into the curriculum for each resident.

Refugee Clinic

Within the last couple of years PGY3s two of our very own residents 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 be advocates 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/