Online Courses

Advocacy Course

Take STFM's free Advocacy Course and learn to educate legislators on the value of family medicine, and encourage them to support expansion of a well-trained family medicine workforce. This course has been taken by over 3,000 family medicine educators and residents, and the updated version includes a new module on state and local advocacy. 

The Milestones 2.0 include more robust requirements for Advocacy competencies. This course will help residents achieve level four of the Advocacy subcompetency.

The online course, which takes a little over an hour to complete, provides skills and practical strategies for governmental advocacy and promoting the value of family medicine. A certificate is available upon completion of the course. If you get interrupted during a module, you can pause it and resume at any time.

Added in 2020:

  • A new module on state and local advocacy
  • Improved user experience and design
  • New pre- and post-course surveys help the learner assess their knowledge and comfort with advocacy

You can find additional free resources in the Advocacy Toolkit.

Topics and Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Define advocacy
  2. Understand its importance
  3. Know more about their feelings regarding advocacy

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Understand the differences between state/local advocacy and federal advocacy
  2. Find and contact their legislators and local officials 
  3. Develop a strong local advocacy campaign 

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Explain some key terms relating to Congressional legislation
  2. Learn about some of the key people with whom they will be interacting in advocacy work

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Prepare for their advocacy efforts
  2. Find their legislator and his or her information
  3. Determine how best to make contact
  4. Set the groundwork for the relationship

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Explain the importance of a one-pager
  2. Target their Ask
  3. Provide background
  4. Write a one-pager

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Prepare for their visit
  2. Interact with their legislator
  3. Have an effective visit with their legislator

By the end of this section, participants should be able to:

  1. Maintain a relationship with a legislator or staffer
  2. Be a resource
  3. Know when to check in and how to do so

Technical Requirements

In order to get the full experience of these courses, we recommend that the courses be viewed on a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet. Smartphones are not supported at this time.

How To Begin

Once you have purchased the course, go to your My Account page on stfm.org. Click Online Learning at the top to begin. The course will be in the Courses section of the online learning center.

Enroll Now

If you have an STFM account, click My Account to log in, then use the Store link at the top of your profile page to purchase the free course.

If you don't have an stfm.org account, click Create Account to make one, then use the Store link at the top of your profile page to purchase the free course.

Price: FREE

New: Institutional Advocacy Courses!

Advocate for Change within Your Health System

STFM has released two new online courses to help faculty and residents to advocate within their health systems–"Advocating Within Your Health System" and "Analyzing Health Systems Data." These interactive courses are designed to help you target messaging to decision makers within your health care systems. Learn how to effectively use data and tell stories when advocating for a proposal at your institution. Demonstrate the need for a health system change by building a business case that clearly supports your request.

Learn More

Questions?

Have questions or need help enrolling? Email Brian Hischier, Manager of Online Education, or call (913) 800-5198.