Advocacy & Outreach - Pediatrics Residency Program

Advocacy is classically defined as “communication on another’s behalf” which differentiates this activity from patient education (communicating to the families we care for) and community engagement (working within communities as partners). Examples of physician advocacy include communication with legislators to support laws that enhance child wellbeing, writing op-eds to communicate about the needs for resources for your patients, and use of social media to generate motivation to improve the situations that your patients experience. Examples of advocacy performed by our pediatric residents include:

Blanche Mungu is concerned about access to services for patients that have delays in development. While schools are legally required to provide services, public education is generally underfunded in most areas making access to those services more challenging as the systems are strained to meet so many different needs. As an intern, Dr. Mungu has communicated with local and state legislators to learn about services provided and enhance understanding of the needs for these services. She has also worked within one school directly with those providing the services. She uses specific communication techniques to build coalitions in support of providing these services and prioritizing access for children.

As a bilingual physician, Hala Taha can feel the difference when patients are able to speak to their doctor in their native language. There are laws that prevent physicians from communicating with their patients in languages other than English without certification of fluency to prevent poor communication by healthcare workers that are not truly fluent in the language. However, most physicians are unaware of the certification process and, because of the many competing priorities, are disinclined to pursue the certification. Dr. Taha learned the process for herself and then initiated a process to streamline the certification process for other residents at Ochsner. This has led to 5 additional physicians obtaining certification to speak with patients in their native languages with more scheduled to complete certification in the coming months.

In national work with pediatrician-advocates it is clear that there is not a consensus on what activities help teach the process of advocacy. Ochsner Pediatric Resident Elyssa Mejia has initiated a Delphi Consensus process to derive consensus on how to teach advocacy to pediatric residents through the Association of Pediatric Program Directors. Results will be presented at the annual meeting of this association in Spring 2026.