Teaching community pediatrics: a community resource fair for residents

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Community Health
• Pediatrics

Background:

• Pediatric residency programs require community and child advocacy training.
• Integrating community knowledge into hospital-based training is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a community resource fair's effectiveness in enhancing residents' knowledge of community care resources.

Main Methods:

• A community resource fair was organized for pediatric and family medicine residents.
• Thirty-one exhibitors presented various pediatric community resources.
• Anonymous pre- and post-assessments were administered to participants.

Main Results:

• Before the fair, 62% of pediatric residents reported little to no knowledge of community resources.
• After the fair, 91% of residents felt somewhat knowledgeable and 9% felt very knowledgeable.
• 92% of resident participants found the fair to be a worthwhile experience.

Conclusions:

• Community resource fairs offer an interactive platform for residents and organizations.
• These fairs facilitate discussions on service offerings and collaborative care coordination.