Canadian Medical Education Journal (Apr 2022)

Longitudinal advocacy training for medical students: a virtual workshop series

  • Courtney Hardy,
  • Mary Ellene Boulos,
  • Sehjal Bhargava,
  • Liam A Cooper-Brown,
  • Montana Hackett,
  • Jessica Hearn,
  • Elizabeth Rowe,
  • Justin Shapiro,
  • Jason Speidel,
  • Amelia Srajer,
  • Shazeen Suleman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.73640

Abstract

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Implication Statement Advocacy curricula in Canadian medical schools vary significantly. Expert-led, interactive workshops can effectively teach students how to address social determinants of health and advocate for patients. The Longitudinal Advocacy Training Series (LATS) is a free-of-charge, virtual program providing advocacy training created for Canadian medical students by students. The program was straightforward to implement and had high participation rates with 1140 participants representing 9.7% of enrolled Canadian medical students. As well, the program had high satisfaction reported by 87.6% of participants. The LATS toolkit enables health professional programs to develop similar programs for empowering effective health advocates.