Even one voice: Teaching legislative advocacy as a core competency in family medicine

Credentialing bodies increasingly focus on advocacy as a competency to be developed by physicians during residency. The skills of advocacy are especially important with the increased attention on social determinants of health, as restrictive state and federal health policy decisions gain widespread attention in the national news media. This movement is reflected in the ACGME's recently revised statement on the training mission of family medicine residencies with the most recent update of milestones, which identifies advocacy as a core competency. Additionally, the major family medicine organizations and governing bodies all similarly identify advocacy as an important professional responsibility for family physicians. Advocacy is a broad term that can be applied across a range of settings and scenarios. For the purposes of this paper we focus primarily on legislative advocacy as a specific area for growing curricular emphasis in family medicine residency programs.