525 - Pairing the Pearl: Integrating Health Equity Themes into Student-Led Primary Care Teaching

Poster Number: 525
Publication Number: 525.2885

Background: In response to the scarcity of primary care exposure for our pediatric clerkship, we supplemented the clinical experience with a student-led didactic series in which each student prepares a “primary care pearl”. As this program became an integral part of our curriculum, we saw an opportunity to integrate discussions of health equity into presentations that were, by definition, of importance to the students.

Objective: The objective of our intervention was to elevate and integrate evidence-based health equity discussions into the pediatric clerkship by utilizing peer-taught presentations of pediatric primary care topics.

Design/Methods: During their pediatric clerkship, students prepared a “Primary Care Pearl””: a 5-minute presentation for their peers on a topic of their choosing relevant to pediatric primary care. Facilitators chose 2-3 out of a total of 5-6 student topics each session to supplement with a discussion of a related health equity issue. Facilitators researched topics to ensure discussion was evidence-based and built an evolving session guide consisting of a topic log and related resources to facilitate future discussions of recurrent topics. Between topics, facilitators introduced their prepared health equity discussion.

Results: One hundred and twenty two of the 198 (62%) student-led presentations were topics not addressed in other clerkship didactics. Facilitators integrated health equity topics into 90 of the 198 student-led presentations (45%). The three most common topic categories were General Principles and Care of the Well Patient (33%), Disorders of the Newborn & Congenital Disorders (11%), and Behavioral Health (8%). Topics that were supplemented with a facilitator-led health equity discussion were grouped into themes, and most common themes with examples of health equity discussion topics can be found in Table 1.

Conclusion(s): When students were asked to teach peers topics of their interest, they broadened the pediatric didactic curriculum covered. Integrating health equity topics into student-led presentations allowed for robust and relevant discussion of health equity topics, partly because students were already engaged with the subject matter. Through building a library of health equity discussion points, effort required to prepare by facilitators decreases with time. This approach allowed us to include a healthy equity lens in our curricular didactics without adding additional sessions and could readily be adapted to other institutions. Next steps include assessment of student perspective on these sessions.