Embedding environmental sustainability within oral health professional curricula—Recommendations for teaching and assessment of learning outcomes

Abstract

The oral healthcare sector is not currently considered to be environmentally sustainable; it is a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, produces other pollutants, and generates unrecyclable waste. 1 In response to the impact of the wider healthcare sector on the environment, multiple national and international stakeholders have produced policy documents in response to the climate emergency. Such examples include the Paris Agreement, 2 the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 3 WHO COP reports 4 and NHS England's Delivering a "Net Zero" National Health Service Policy. 5 More recently, there are examples of dental-specific policy documents, such as the Joint Stakeholder Statement for Consensus on Environmentally Sustainable Oral Healthcare. 6 Here, the FDI recognises the importance of collaborating with all stakeholders in the interests of sustainability-and recommends that dentistry, as a profession, should integrate Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into daily practice and support a shift to a green economy.It is clear that in order to achieve these goals, Environmental Sustainability (ES) must be formally integrated into curricula for Oral Health Professionals (OHPs). In 2019, during the annual meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), a Special Interest Group (SIG) reported a consensus view regarding the

O‐Health‐Edu: A viewpoint into the current state of oral health professional education in Europe: Part 2: Curriculum structure, facilities, staffing and quality assurance

“…Some topics included in Figure 2 are well established in OHP education and others are more emergent areas of interest. There are published recommendations to support OHP schools in embedding some of these concepts in the curriculum, although they are limited to certain topics 30,32 . These documents largely include learning outcomes and recommendations for learning, teaching and assessment.…”

“…There are published recommendations to support OHP schools in embedding some of these concepts in the curriculum, although they are limited to certain topics. 30,32 These documents largely include learning outcomes and recommendations for learning, teaching and assessment. It is noted that there is an absence of guidance for some top-…”

Exploring the Perception of Dental Undergraduate Students and Faculty on Environmental Sustainability in Dentistry: A Cross-Sectional Survey in 26 Dental Schools in Saudi Arabia

“…During the annual meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) in 2019, a special interest group (SIG) published a consensus view shedding light on how essential is ESD in dental education and that awareness should be raised concerning the need for educator’s support in developing ESD curricula [ 15 ]. Following the recent annual ADEE meeting of the SIG, in 2021, a consensus article was published [ 23 ], reporting the European consensus on suggested learning outcomes for ESD concerning the Graduating European Dentist curricula, providing recommendations for teaching ESD within existing OHP programmes, including methods of teaching and assessment. The outcomes of the ADEE SIG consensus meeting [ 23 ] suggested that the incorporation of ESD into OHP education poses challenges due to an already overloaded curriculum.…”

“…Following the recent annual ADEE meeting of the SIG, in 2021, a consensus article was published [ 23 ], reporting the European consensus on suggested learning outcomes for ESD concerning the Graduating European Dentist curricula, providing recommendations for teaching ESD within existing OHP programmes, including methods of teaching and assessment. The outcomes of the ADEE SIG consensus meeting [ 23 ] suggested that the incorporation of ESD into OHP education poses challenges due to an already overloaded curriculum. To address this, a student-centred approach with practical resources and materials is necessary to help students and educators develop a basic understanding of ESD.…”

Exploring the Perception of Dental Undergraduate Students and Faculty on Environmental Sustainability in Dentistry: A Cross-sectional Survey in 26 Dental Schools in Saudi Arabia

“…During the annual meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) in 2019, a Special Interest Group (SIG) published a consensus view shedding light on how essential is ESD in dental education and that awareness should be raised concerning the need for educator's support in developing ESD curricula [14]. Following the recent annual ADEE meeting of the SIG, in 2021, a consensus article was published [19], reporting the European consensus on suggested learning outcomes for ESD concerning the Graduating European Dentist (GED) curricula, providing recommendations for teaching ESD within existing Oral Health Professional (OHP) programmes including methods of teaching and assessment.…”