Climate and health capacity building for health professionals in the Caribbean: A pilot course

Abstract

Climate change is a reality in the Caribbean and its effects are already harming health, yet the health workforce capacity to implement climate mitigation and adaptation measures is lacking. From March-May of 2022, a free, live-virtual, evidence and competency based 10-week climate and health course targeted toward health risks in the Caribbean was deployed to: (1) increase communication about climate and health, (2) equip health professionals with knowledge and skills that could be readily incorporated into practice, and (3) engage health professionals with climate and health initiatives within their communities. Participants in this course came from 37 countries, 10 different health-related fields, and five different general places of work. Longitudinal surveys revealed significant changes in health professional communication, engagement and application of climate and health knowledge and skills. Live-virtual, evidence and competency-based courses, regional-specific courses have the potential to change health professional behaviors toward addressing climate impacts on health.

Climate and health challenges for Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics

“…Clinicians have an important role helping patients and the public recognise, respond to, and prepare for climate related ill health. Climate change and related health problems are, however, often missing from medical curriculums 1516. One exception is the World Athletics’ race emergency medicine course, which includes lectures on exertional heat stroke, skill building activities, and race day observation 17.…”

Climate Change, Environment, and Health: The implementation and initial evaluation of a longitudinal, integrated curricular theme and novel competency framework at Harvard Medical School

“…There is a burgeoning literature documenting progress made in climate education across the medical, nursing, and public health fields, among others. For example, public health scholarship has formulated competency frameworks [5,6]. In the field of nursing, thought leaders have described the challenges of integrating climate education [7], advocated for educational competencies [7] and provided recommendations for developing robust climate education for nursing students [7].…”

Development of a curricular thread to foster medical students’ critical reflection and promote action on climate change, health, and equity

“…Assessments are critical as they signal learning priorities to students, confirm knowledge acquisition and behavior change, and facilitate sharing of successful interventions across programs and institutions [10,11,13,14]. Thought leaders have recommended learning objectives for climate change and health education, and suggested when and how to deliver content and assessments within existing educational frameworks [13][14][15][16][17][18].…”