Workshop | What should we teach physician trainees about social care? Core competencies, priorities and exemplars

Payers, accreditors, community members, and other stakeholders expect health systems to do more to address health-related social needs (HRSN) and in order to close pervasive health equity gaps . New roles for care delivery include social needs screening, connecting patients to social care resources, adjusting patient care plans to account for social risk and working with community partners to address social and structural drivers of health (SDOH). In order to skillfully and effectively undertake these new roles and to advance health equity, however, physicians and other members of interprofessional care teams need new knowledge, skills, attitudes and values – competencies that have not traditionally been cultivated in medical school, residency programs or other health professions training programs. This workshop sought to engage conference participants – a multidisciplinary group on the cutting edge of designing, delivering and researching social care interventions – in a dialogue about what these new competencies should be. Ideas and insights that came out of the workshop will inform the development of a formal consensus process to identify and prioritize social care competencies for physician trainees.

Presentation slides