Breastfeeding Residency Curriculum

Welcome to the Breastfeeding Residency Curriculum

Please tell us about your program's current breastfeeding education.

Breastfeeding is best for the health of infants and mothers. As more mothers are choosing to breastfeed, physicians need to be trained to successfully support these mothers. The American Academy of Pediatrics developed this Breastfeeding Residency Curriculum to help residents develop confidence and skills in breastfeeding care.

How the Curriculum Works

This Web site is designed to help residency program directors and faculty incorporate breastfeeding education into existing curriculum through implementation and evaluation strategies, useful tools, and other trusted resources. It can be applied to Pediatric, Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Obstetric/Gynecologic Residency Programs. The curriculum has been organized based on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Core Competencies. Included are goals and objectives as well as planning, teaching and evaluation tools, prepared cases and presentations, and suggested resources. This video explains how to use this site.

Time to Complete the Curriculum

The curriculum is flexible. It can be implemented over 1 rotation, 1 year, or during the entire length of residency. Go to the Implementation Strategies page for examples of how some residency programs have implemented the curriculum.

Activities and Evaluation

The curriculum allows you to make choices. Whether you implement 1 activity or 20, you are helping residents to develop confidence and skills to help breastfeeding infants and mothers. The Essential Activities are the activities that you should strive to complete with every resident. The Additional Activities are provided to give more options if time allows. It is strongly urged that you evaluate residents on these activities. Evaluation will help the residents know how they are doing and will help you keep track of their progress. The evaluation tools are effective in evaluating the residents as well as the breastfeeding residency curriculum as a whole. Here are some examples of the tools included.

Planning Tool

Data Collection Guide – This guide will help you to collect breastfeeding data at your hospital at discharge and at 6 months.

Evaluation Tools

Pre- and Post-tests – The pre-test can be given to residents to determine their baseline knowledge, confidence, and practice patterns before they begin to learn about breastfeeding. The post-test can be given to residents to determine their knowledge, confidence, and practice patterns after they complete the breastfeeding education.
Resident Care Evaluation: ACGME Core Competencies – This form can be used to measure the residents' proficiency in providing breastfeeding care according to the ACGME Core Competencies.

Teaching Tools

Objective Structured Clinical Examination Case Study: Set Up – This case study can be used to evaluate the resident's ability to communicate with a mother during a visit. It encompasses many of the skills that will have been learned throughout the curriculum and would be useful as a live cumulative exam. Use with the Objective Structured Clinical Examination Case Study: Standardized Patient Description and Script and Objective Structured Clinical Examination Case Study: Performance Assessment .
Prepared Presentations – A multidisciplinary group of physicians at the University of New Mexico have prepared presentations about breastfeeding for you to use when lecturing. These presentations include basic breastfeeding assessment, management of common breastfeeding problems, and management of common breastfeeding situations.

AAP President Supports Breastfeeding Education
The AAP supports you in your efforts to provide breastfeeding education to residents. To learn more about the AAP commitment to breastfeeding, read the letter PDF Document from the AAP President David T. Tayloe, Jr, MD, FAAP.

Curriculum Developers