This elective is outside the required curriculum, and no student may use this course to leave from, or reduce, the required time of any required M3/M4 clerkship or Sub-I activities.

Part-time (2 weeks asynchronous) : Saturday Classes in-person, asynchronous modules

The Health Justice Policy Practicum (HJPP) is an interdisciplinary course led by the Loyola School of Law. The HJPP provides an immersive opportunity to learn the fundamentals of health justice policy, creative problem solving, poverty law, systemic advocacy, and professionalism. Seminars will begin with the foundations of health justice and policy advocacy, and then move into policy practice topics, legislative advocacy, rulemaking, administrative advocacy, and educating legislators and policymakers.
This elective empowers participants to be advocates for health justice through policy advocacy instruction and experience. Classroom sessions address the social determinants of health, access to healthcare, and policy advocacy to improve systems. The course will also include a practicum component to teach a hands-on, collaborative approach to addressing health-harming policies to improve access to quality health care for low-income and underserved individuals. Students will be mentored and join a community of practitioners working toward the elimination of health disparities to grow their experience and skill level, including the Legal Council for Health Justice.

OBJECTIVES
- Develop an introductory understanding of the community-centered policy advocacy approach including engagement, collaboration, participatory research, and discussion of the specific role of lawyers in the policy advocacy dynamic.
- Recognize the systems impacting low-income people and the structural racism within these systems. Examine the effect of these systems on power, race, disability, and gender dynamics, and critically analyze these systems to understand how to make change.
- Develop collaboration skills through exposure to health policy initiatives that involve community members, legal aid, healthcare providers, and social service organizations.
- Identify challenges in making systemic change and understand how to learn and grow from initiative setbacks and failures.

Seminar Class: You will participate in a live HJPP seminar classes listed below unless other arrangements are made with course instructors to change dates. Preparation and active participation in seminar and forum discussions will be part of your grade.

Asynchronous Activities: In order to provide you with direct experience on a health policy initiative, you will be expected to participate in activities on your policy project, alone or in collaboration with a partner, or with the Legal Council for Health Justice. You may engage in this participation remotely and during the hours that fit your schedule. You will need to coordinate this work with your project partner and will both need to consider the other’s schedule as you collaborate. You will also complete asynchronous modules in Sakai.

Required Activities for Medical Students:
Medical students who participate in the Health Justice Policy Practicum will have the following requirements:

1. Attend 2 in-class sessions with law students on Saturday mornings at the Corboy Law Center, Room 1201, Water Tower Campus. The recommended classes are as follows (but if you need to choose other classes based on your schedule, that is OK):
a. First class: Module 2: Introduction to the Health Justice Policy Practicum Class: January 20, 2024, 8:20 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
b. And second class: Module 12: Community Partnerships: Building, Maintaining, and Power balancing; and Data and Advocacy, Stories and Advocacy: April 6, 2024, 8:20 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

2. Complete 3 asynchronous modules or 1 asynchronous module and 1 additional in-class session based on interest.

3. Complete the required readings including articles/videos for each seminar class you attend. Most articles/videos are linked in the syllabus, but please contact Meghan Carter and Carrie Chapman if you cannot access them, mcarter12@luc.edu and cchapm4@luc.edu. Please note that any associated written reflection papers and activities are not required of medical students.

4. Participate on an interprofessional policy team with law students on an assigned policy project:
a. Collaborate with the interprofessional policy team to identify needs, conduct research, and strategize advocacy related to your policy team project.
b. Attend at least 1 interprofessional policy team meeting, likely via Zoom or Microsoft Teams video.
c. Attend 1 policy team supervision meeting with instructors Meghan and Carrie (likely February or March).
d. Medical students will support and consult on the interprofessional policy teams’ project but will not be asked to write or present on the project and will not be graded on the project.

5. Write a final 3-page reflection paper on interprofessional collaboration and lessons learned about policy advocacy due on Saturday, May 4, 2024, by 11:30 pm CDT.

Required Texts
Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America, by Dayna Bowen Matthew, ISBN: 9781479802661
All other reading materials, full course schedule and weekly assignments for this course will be made available.

Grading is Pass/Fail.

Participation in required activities (70%), Final Project and Reflection (30%).