Advocacy

 Social Responsibility

Advocacy is a crucial skill. There is no specialty in medicine where advocacy is more important than in OBGYN. Our residents and faulty are actively involved in advocacy at the city and state level. Many have also participated in a breadth of advocacy opportunities including: the ACOG Congressional Leadership Conference, other ACOG advocacy events, the Leadership Training Academy (LTA), and the Utah Medical Association (UMA) Doctor’s Day and House of Delegates. 

In addition, the residency has formalized its advocacy training into an exciting new curriculum! This is led by three faculty with advocacy experience at local and national levels:

• Cara Heuser, MD who has completed the LTA,
• Jen Kaiser, MD who has served as expert testimony in the Utah state legislature, and
• Jessica Sanders, PhD who is Head of the Policy Evaluation Core in the ASCENT Center for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Research, Education, and Policy, and has extensive connections with local policymakers and is part of the Scholars Strategy Network.

Together with the help a dynamic advocacy committee composed of residents from each class, they have crafted an exciting curriculum that includes 5-6 evening sessions per year, and journal club, and an Advocacy Day during the Utah State Legislative Session. Topics during the evening session include:

• Advocating in the patient room: Utah Doulas of Color and improving pregnancy and birth outcomes for pregnant people of color
• Local patient advocacy with the YWCA and Connect to Health
• Overview of the legislative process with a Utah ACLU lawyer
• Advocacy and Engagement 101 with the Scholars Strategy Network and local testimony-giving experts
• Overview of reproductive health bills for the upcoming legislative session
• Panel of state representatives that are also MDs

The Advocacy Day will include protected time for all residents to attend a half day training in:

• Media engagement
• Op ed writing with a goal to submit your op ed!
• Best practices in talking with representatives

The day will be capped with:

• A panel comprised of reproductive health and health care lobbyists including those from: YWCA, Voices for Utah Children, Alliance for a Better Utah, ACLU, UMA, Department of Health, Comunidades Unidas, and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah among others
• Small group meetings with legislators to discuss a specific issue

In light of recent changes to reproductive health access in Utah and across the country, we believe the advocacy curriculum is even more vital to our residents’ training. We are committed to equipping our residents with the skills to be advocates for their patients wherever they end up practicing.

We are committed to the people of our community and ensuring they have access to the full range of reproductive health services in the state of Utah. We highly value resident participation in advocacy events and look forward to offering you phenomenal experiences and training in advocacy.