Environmental competencies for healthcare educators and trainees: A scoping review

Abstract

Background: The health-care community has a responsibility to address the environmental impact of delivering health-care services. Educational programmes present ideal fora to confer ‘environmental competencies’ to future health system leaders, managers, practitioners and researchers. The aim of this review is to synthesise the literature on health-care competencies, education and training of relevance to issues of environmental sustainability and climate change in the health sector. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of English language articles on environmental competencies in healthcare in the MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and ProQuest databases published from inception to April 2019. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to synthesise the findings and develop a typology of environmental competencies. Results: Of the 902 unique citations, we identified 23 articles that met our inclusion criteria. Environmental competencies that align with general management skills were most frequent (40%), followed by research skills (37%). Three competencies specific to the environment (22%) were identified: resource stewardship ( n = 16), systems thinking ( n = 14) and social and environmental justice ( n = 7). The majority of work was identified in nursing, medicine and public health. Competencies were most commonly embedded in existing curricula or offered as new courses or workshops. Conclusion: Incorporating environmental competencies into education programmes will serve to raise awareness of, and advance the significance of, the health sector’s impact on climate change and environmental sustainability. Our findings that environmental competencies align with previously validated health-care competencies support the perspective that these competencies represent essential knowledge and skills for the health-care workforce.

Faculty development and partnership with students to integrate sustainable healthcare into health professions education

“…A recent scoping review identified three core healthcare competencies as being specific to the environment, namely resource stewardship, systems thinking and social and environmental justice (Parker et al 2020). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has taken steps to increase student and faculty awareness of all of the latter three competencies by enhancing curricula at undergraduate and graduate levels (Butterfield et al 2014), and in public health there is growing expectation that this content on environmental sustainability should be integrated into all university courses (Patrick et al 2016).…”

Education for sustainable healthcare: A transdisciplinary approach to transversal environmental threats

“…communication, professionalism, leadership, and advocacy (Thistlethwaite and Moran 2010). Essential environmental competencies for healthcare educators and trainees include leadership, research skills, resource stewardship, systems thinking, social, environmental and ecological justice, and global citizenship (Parker et al 2020). Ethical codes, such as the International Council of Nurse's ethical codes for Nurses, provide a strong argument for a transdisciplinary approach to ESH, with the inclusion of beneficence and justice principles.…”

Integration of planetary health in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education: protocol for a scoping review

“…9 10 A recent scoping review found that environmental competencies within nursing, medicine and pharmacy fit in well with previously validated healthcare competencies of resource stewardship, systems thinking, and social and environmental justice. 11 …”

“…As a first step towards incorporating a planetary health curriculum within medical education, organisations such as the Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce (HEART) have created a set of planetary health competencies to provide a framework for subsequent curricular development 9 10. A recent scoping review found that environmental competencies within nursing, medicine and pharmacy fit in well with previously validated healthcare competencies of resource stewardship, systems thinking, and social and environmental justice 11…”