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The Physician Education Initiative was developed to provide breastfeeding education to Chicago area physicians through in-services at local physicians’ offices. Local Lactation Consultants, La Leche League Leaders, and others who support breastfeeding mothers and infants are invited to participate in this program as presenters of these in-services. It is our hope that these presentations will serve to increase physicians’ breastfeeding knowledge, provide face-to-face contact with breastfeeding advocates and professionals to whom they can refer mothers with problems and questions, and build relationships among those providing care and support to breastfeeding mothers and infants as we work toward making breastfeeding the norm in our community.
Since its inception in 2007, this initiative has reached 10 physician practices and over 100 individuals. Overwhelmingly, the presentations have been well received. Presenters have reported that their contact with physician offices has continued after the presentation with an increase in referrals to the breastfeeding community and greater awareness by the physician groups of breastfeeding resources that are available to them.
We have found that an informal lunch and learn format works well for these in-services, as it lends itself to discussion and sharing. CABC funds have been earmarked to help reimburse the cost of providing lunch or refreshments at presentations. Presenters will be eligible to receive up to $75.00 in reimbursement for food/refreshments provided. You will find information below about how you can get started and become part of our effort to increase the scope of this initiative.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Power Point presentation Breastfeeding Support and Promotion Speaker's Kit, provides a ready-made program on which to base CABC Physician Education Initiative presentations. The CABC can provide the AAP Power Point program to you on DVD along with a DVD player appropriate for small groups of 6-8 people. The presentation can also be downloaded from: http://www.aap.org/breastfeeding/
healthProfessionaIsResourceGuide.html#breastfeedingEducationForHealthProfessionals
You very likely know of pediatric practices in your area that could use some education. So, your participation, in addition to providing desperately needed physician education, can be an effective tool for marketing your services and may benefit your agency or business as well as the breastfeeding families that you serve.
We encourage doing Physician Education presentations in teams. An LC or other knowledgeable breastfeeding advocate and a LLL Leader may team up to speak at each in-service, ideally pairing an experienced speaker with a newer speaker. However, you are welcome to do a presentation on your own if you prefer. See Benefits of Presenting as a Team Presenting as a team can have the following benefits:
1) Give newer presenters practice with more experienced mentors.
2) Provide an opportunity for LC, LLL Leader or other breastfeeding advocate to describe their services and how they differ. (Contact information for both the LC and LLL may be left at the MDs’ office.)
3) Build collaboration between LCs and LLL leaders as well as between pediatric offices and the larger breastfeeding community.
We are available to answer any questions you may have about the ins and outs of doing a presentation and will give you support as you go through the process of contacting a physician group, planning your talk, planning appropriate food and refreshments for the group, or obtaining equipment you need. We can also help with pairing speakers.
The steps to getting started planning a talk are:
1) Choose one or more pediatric practices in your area and extend an invitation to give an hour-long in-service to its staff. The office manager can be helpful in scheduling a talk.
2) Schedule one or more of these in-services during the remainder of 2010.
3) Once you have scheduled a talk, download an Application Form (link) and submit it to a committee member for approval before the presentation is given.
4) Use the AAP’s Power Point presentation on breastfeeding as the basis for your talks. This is a long presentation, but you can choose among its sections based on the interests of the pediatric office.
5) We will send you a sign in sheet for your talk, and evaluation forms to be completed by the attendees.
6) Upon completion of your talk you will be eligible to receive up to $75.00 in reimbursement from CABC for food/refreshments that you provided.
As our CABC slogan says, there is “strength in numbers.” By joining together for this initiative, we can have an impact that is greater than the sum of our individual efforts. Help us make Chicago the breastfeeding-friendly city we all want it to be. We look forward to hearing from you!
Contact the Physician Education Committee (physicianed@chicagoareabfc.org)