All of our residents participate in a 3-year longitudinal community-based experience called the Kaiser Pediatric Resident Education in Advocacy and Community Health (REACH) program. This unique curriculum affords individual residents the opportunity to engage together with communities throughout the thread of their training, linking experiences at the medical center with neighborhoods and communities.
The overarching goals of the Kaiser Pediatric REACH program are to:
- Interface with and assess existing resources and assets within a defined community
- Understand elements of school based health
- Identify and prioritize gaps in health outcomes for a defined neighborhood
- Understand how social determinants of health affect health outcomes for populations
- Advocate for best child health outcomes
Curriculum
All residents have dedicated REACH time for two half days every clinic week each block over all 3 years. REACH time activities might include:
- Introduction to partnering community/school site
- Neighborhood resource mapping and needs assessment
- Participation as liaison with community organizations and leaders for understanding and addressing pediatric health issues
- Developing and delivering educational talks in collaboration with community organizations
- Local, state, and national advocacy for policies promoting pediatric health issues
- Development of a longitudinal project at partnering community site
- Completion of self-directed assignments
Resident Spotlight
Developing a school-based garden curriculum at Alliance Academy
Vanessa Boshuizen (PGY-3), Lydia Maleknia (PGY-3), Catherine Pourdavoud (PGY-2), and Mengyou Wu (PGY-2) have used their REACH time to develop and implement a school-based garden curriculum at Alliance Academy in Oakland, CA. Their curriculum built on work from resident graduates Deepika Parmar and Rebecca Dang and is funded through an AAP CATCH grant. They will be presenting their experiences in community health at the upcoming 2019 AAP National Conference in New Orleans, LA.
Raising awareness about e-scooter safety in West Oakland
James Hall, class of 2019, noticed that each time he visited his REACH site West Oakland Middle School, he would see students as young as 12-years-old riding e-scooters despite companies’ intended age restrictions of 18 years or older – and usually without helmets. Using information from student interviews, safety experts, and literature on injuries, he created an E-Scooter Safety brochure. He utilized the brochure to help empower teachers and students to have discussions around safety. James also presented his work at an Oakland Medical Center grand rounds to raise greater awareness among pediatricians.
