The Planetary Health Report Card: a student-led initiative to inspire planetary health in medical schools

Hampshire, Karly; Islam, Nuzhat; Kissel, Bennett; Chase, Hannah; Gundling, Katherine

doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00045-6

Cited by 46 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Its goal is to inspire PH and sustainable healthcare education engagement in medical schools across the globe. The PHRC evaluates the performance of medical schools with respect to PH using five metrics including curriculum, research, community outreach, support for student-led initiatives, and campus sustainability ( 8 ). In response to the B- grade that the Medical School received in the 2020 PHRC, the administration created the PH-TF.…”

Section: Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their proposal was accepted by Emory's Executive Curriculum Committee with plans to implement the changes for the class of 2024 ( 6 , 7 ). The creation of the Planetary Health Report Card by students at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and the subsequent Planetary Health Report Card Conference held online in October 2021 provided an important venue for medical students at different schools to learn from each other's experiences and gain advocacy skills ( 8 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A grassroots approach for greener education: An example of a medical student-driven planetary health curriculum

Navarrete-Welton

Chen

Byg

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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Given the widespread impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on human health, medical schools have been under increasing pressure to provide comprehensive planetary health education to their students. However, the logistics of integrating such a wide-ranging and multi-faceted topic into existing medical curricula can be daunting. In this article, we present the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University as an example of a student-driven, bottom-up approach to the development of a planetary health education program. In 2020, student advocacy led to the creation of a Planetary Health Task Force composed of medical students, faculty, and administrators as well as Brown Environmental Sciences faculty. Since that time, the task force has orchestrated a wide range of planetary health initiatives, including interventions targeted to the entire student body as well as opportunities catering to a subset of highly interested students who wish to engage more deeply with planetary health. The success of the task force stems from several factors, including the framing of planetary health learning objectives as concordant with the established educational priorities of the Medical School's competency-based curriculum known as the Nine Abilities, respecting limitations on curricular space, and making planetary health education relevant to local environmental and hospital issues.

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Section: Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A grassroots approach for greener education: An example of a medical student-driven planetary health curriculum

Navarrete-Welton

Chen

Byg

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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“…That our study asserts lack of knowledge as one of the main barriers to advancing environmental sustainability in healthcare [ 45 ] simultaneously singles out education as one of the most central strategies for decreasing this lack and so laying the foundation for subsequent implementation. To this end, our study justifies the considerable efforts that are now going into planetary health and sustainable healthcare education around the world and include the development of relevant education frameworks, competencies, content, and education formats [ 27 , 28 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. In the South African context, however, very little integration of planetary health and sustainable healthcare into medical and healthcare professional curricula is happening to date, thus demarcating a clear and urgent field for action and corresponding research that should encompass everything from fundamental understandings about the relationships between health and environment all the way through concrete strategies for implementation in daily practice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

South African Healthcare Professionals’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods Study

Lister

Mostert

Botha

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Climate change, biodiversity loss and large-scale environmental degradation are widely recognized as the biggest health threats of the 21st century, with the African continent already amongst the most severely affected and vulnerable to their further progression. The healthcare system’s contribution to climate change and environmental degradation requires healthcare professionals to address environmental issues urgently. However, the foundation for context-relevant interventions across research, practice, and education is not readily available. Therefore, we conducted a convergent mixed-methods study to investigate South African healthcare professionals’ knowledge, attitudes, practices, and barriers to environmental sustainability. Healthcare professionals participated in a cross-sectional questionnaire (n = 100) and in-depth semi-structured focus group discussions (n = 18). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, respectively, and integrated to provide holistic findings. Our results confirm overwhelmingly positive attitudes and a high degree of interest in education, implementation, and taking on more corresponding responsibility, but a lack of substantial knowledge of the subject matter, and only tentative implementation of practices. Identified barriers include a lack of knowledge, resources, and policies. Further research, education, and policy development on overcoming these barriers is required. This will facilitate harnessing the extant enthusiasm and advance environmental sustainability in South Africa’s healthcare practice.

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“…In fact, globally only 15% of Medical Schools include climate change in their curricula [ 13 ]. While the Planetary Health Report Card Initiative (PHRC), an advocacy tool that allows medical schools to measure progress towards programmatic improvement, describes some progress on integration of climate change into curricula in 5 countries [ 14 ], PHRC has not yet been taken up in the rest of the world. As a result, medical students continue to call for their education to be adapted [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Walpole et al also found lack of faculty expertise, and additionally highlighted difficulties in securing an allocation of core curriculum time and resources [ 17 ]. It has been pointed out that expert material is available [ 10 ] with organisations including the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) working to develop, pool and share resources and educational practices worldwide [ 18 ], as well as initiatives such as the PHRC providing a platform to share ideas and resources as well as evaluate and compare medical schools engagement with education of sustainable healthcare [ 14 , 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of an online module: climate-change and sustainability in clinical practice

et al. 2022

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Background Climate change has significant implications for health, yet healthcare provision itself contributes significant greenhouse gas emission. Medical students need to be prepared to address impacts of the changing environment and fulfil a key role in climate mitigation. Here we evaluate the effectiveness of an online module on climate-change and sustainability in clinical practice designed to achieve learning objectives adapted from previously established sustainable healthcare priority learning outcomes. Methods A multi-media, online module was developed, and 3 rd and 4 th year medical students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School were invited to enrol. Students completed pre- and post-module questionnaires consisting of Likert scale and white space answer questions. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of responses was performed. Results Forty students enrolled and 33 students completed the module (83% completion rate). There was a significant increase in reported understanding of key concepts related to climate change and sustainability in clinical practice ( p < 0.001), with proportion of students indicating good or excellent understanding increasing from between 2 – 21% students to between 91 – 97% students. The majority (97%) of students completed the module within 90 min. All students reported the module was relevant to their training. Thematic analysis of white space responses found students commonly reported they wanted access to more resources related to health and healthcare sustainability, as well as further guidance on how to make practical steps towards reducing the environmental impact within a clinical setting. Conclusion This is the first study to evaluate learner outcomes of an online module in the field of sustainable health and healthcare. Our results suggest that completion of the module was associated with significant improvement in self-assessed knowledge of key concepts in climate health and sustainability. We hope this approach is followed elsewhere to prepare healthcare staff for impacts of climate change and to support improving the environmental sustainability of healthcare delivery. Trial registration Study registered with Brighton and Sussex Medical School Research Governance and Ethics Committee (BSMS RGEC). Reference: ER/BSMS3576/8, Date: 4/3/2020. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03734-8.

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The Planetary Health Report Card: a student-led initiative to inspire planetary health in medical schools

Cited by 46 publications

References 13 publications

A grassroots approach for greener education: An example of a medical student-driven planetary health curriculum

A grassroots approach for greener education: An example of a medical student-driven planetary health curriculum

South African Healthcare Professionals’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods Study

Effectiveness of an online module: climate-change and sustainability in clinical practice

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