C4.01 - Deep Dive: Exploring Social Privilege, Leadership and Advocacy Using a Peer Education Program Model to Cultivate Mentorship

Brief Abstract Summary: Engage in a deep dive discussion with presenters who are change agents or advocates of change. All attendees will be introduced to an innovative health education leadership model that centers participant-research as a mechanism for mentorship and professional development. The Peer Education Program (PEP), a voluntary pilot program conducted at a large academic medical center, was a response to the national call-to-action to increase conversations about medical racism, health equity, and social justice leadership. The PEP curriculum, a combination of peer-to-peer learning, group lectures and discussion, and participant-research, created a safe space for students to discuss challenging healthcare topics and grow their leadership capacity. This session will provide a number of activities that will demonstrate how someone can best implement this program at their home institutions.

Detailed abstract description: Presenters will reference the LEADS Framework that describes public health leadership competencies used to design, implement, evaluate, and disseminate the Peer Education Program. The LEADS Framework focuses on self-awareness, engagement, goals, collaboration and partnerships, and critical thinking to support innovation.
The LEADS Framework demonstrates how students can not only learn from the actual program but also can learn by watching their leaders and mentors display “hard skills” (e.g., data analysis, manuscript development, etc.) and “soft skills” (e.g., time management, active listening, teamwork, empathy, flexibility, etc.).
Effective leaders tend to be more self-aware and demonstrate life-long learning qualities. They look for opportunities to engage with diverse audiences, including students, and work in interdisciplinary teams to solve gaps within the systems of healthcare. In healthcare and public health, those leaders see how health inequities, implicit bias, and societal injustices impact the health and quality of life for their patients and want to make changes to curriculum that help students better understand these issues. A Social Determinants of Health Course, coupled with racial unrest stemming from the summer of 2020, was the catalyst for the Peer Education Program (PEP). PEP, a voluntary pilot program conducted at a large academic medical center, created a safe space for students to discuss challenging healthcare topics, share personal experiences, and learn from each other. From April 2021 to July 2021, four interdisciplinary healthcare students met once a month for one hour to discuss privilege, race/racism, leadership, and advocacy, and their influence on health equity. Four students completed PEP, and three students completed the program evaluation survey.
In order to implement and assess PEP, leaders and mentors had to set the direction for the team, including student participants who helped with program evaluation analysis at the conclusion of the program. The uniqueness of PEP was its participant-researcher framework. ICPHR (2013) suggests there are beneficial outcomes when participant and researcher unite and work together on building workable solutions for their community. Using a participant-researcher model will allow for equitable involvement throughout the research process. Because of this reason, program facilitators invited student-participants to join the research team to analyze program survey data and provide perspective. The team of full-time faculty mentors and student-researchers used qualitative content analysis research methods to code data and identify themes. During the analysis process, students realized there are several required steps to adopt and sustain social change in healthcare. Students and mentors used critical thinking and creativity skills to develop a healthcare leadership development framework called, “The Four A’s of Social Change”: Awareness, Acknowledgment, Action, and Advocacy