“TEACH”ing medical students to address child poverty: A multimodal curriculum

Background: In 2019, 14.4% of US children were living in poverty, defined as at or below 100% of the federal poverty level. Poverty threatens a child's ability to contribute socially, behaviorally, and emotionally to society and can compromise health. Because child poverty is ubiquitous, a poverty curriculum should be introduced during medical school.
Educational Approach and Innovation: Medical schools have incorporated population health into the undergraduate curriculum, but few specifically discuss child poverty, and even fewer utilize experiential learning as an educational strategy. The Trainee Education in Advocacy and Community Health (TEACH) curriculum aims to identify and address health effects of child poverty, based on the US Child Poverty Curriculum learning objectives, while using community-based experiential learning. Fourth-year students participated in a two-day course as part of their “Transition to Residency” rotation. The curriculum is based upon Kolb's experiential learning theory, emphasizing a transformational experience and ensuing reflection and abstraction leading to experimentation in a new situation. It also addresses three of the five child advocacy competencies defined by the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics.