Teaching medical students about the impacts of climate change on human health

Gomez, Jason; Goshua, Anna; Pokrajac, Nicholas; Erny, Barbara; Auerbach, Paul S.; Nadeau, Kari; Gisondi, Michael A.

doi:10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100020

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The rising sea levels have led to coastal erosion and floods in most of the coastal cities and towns, including Cape Town, Durban, East London and Port Alfred, destroying coastal infrastructure, including hotels, resorts and recreational facilities (Dube et al, 2021). Similarly, climate variabilities have contributed to coral bleaching and the eradication of marine ecosystems in the coastal communities in the country (Lemery, 2017). Warmer ocean temperatures linked with climate change have led to coral bleaching, negatively impacting marine ecosystems.…”

Section: Climate Change Impacts On Tourism Infrastructure and Health ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the Social and Economic Consequences of Climate Change on Sustainable Livelihoods on Coastal Communities in South Africa

Adom,

Simatele,

Das

2023

Preprint

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Coastal regions are vital to numerous local economies and the national development of countries globally, including South Africa, due to their significant contributions to job creation, marine transportation, offshore drilling, resource extraction, fish cultivation, recreation and tourism. Despite these contributions to the coastal regions, the coastal communities are threatened by climate change in the form of sea level rise, floods, pollution, coastal erosion, changes to shorelines, extensive damage to critical infrastructure and destruction of coastal livelihoods. While these threats are increasingly hard to overlook, many governments and local administrators, including South Africa, have yet to prepare or implement strategies to meet these menaces adequately. Using mixed method approach of qualitative and quantitative, and extensive literature reviews, this paper explores the consequences of climate change on coastal livelihoods in South Africa. Our findings established that the country's coastal areas are under severe threats with high risks of submergence of floods, saltwater intrusion into surface and groundwater, increased erosion and overwhelmingly negative social and economic repercussions. This paper recommends a higher sense of urgency in addressing climate change threats and a much stronger implementation framework in climate change governance in the country, especially in the coastal zones.

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Section: Climate Change Impacts On Tourism Infrastructure and Health ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unravelling the Social and Economic Consequences of Climate Change on Sustainable Livelihoods on Coastal Communities in South Africa

Adom,

Simatele,

Das

2023

Preprint

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“…9 While interprofessional health students and clinicians recognize that environmental exposures and climate change are impacting the health of their patients, [10][11][12][13] they cite a lack of education on these topics as a primary barrier to counseling patients. 14,15 In published literature, several frameworks [16][17][18] and curricula have been developed for educating learners (de ned for the scope of this paper to include medical students, residents, fellows, nursing students, and advanced practice provider students) [19][20][21] and clinicians (de ned for the scope of this paper as physicians, nurses, and advanced practice providers) 22 on health impacts of environmental factors in a didactic setting. However, only a few studies have evaluated curricula that speci cally address how learners and clinicians should approach a clinical encounter with an at-risk patient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short animated video increases knowledge and comfort in clinical counseling on inequitable health impacts of air pollution among interprofessional health learners and clinicians

Doheny,

Inglis,

Boll

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background Air pollution is a major health risk contributing to global morbidity and mortality, yet clinicians do not routinely engage in counseling patients on this topic. Clinicians cite their lack of education as a common barrier. We developed a two-minute animated video on mitigating air pollution health risks and evaluated the efficacy of this video as an educational tool.Methods In March-June 2021, a convenience sample of Minnesota interprofessional health learners and clinicians viewed the video and completed an electronic survey that assessed pre-/post-video intervention changes in a) didactic and clinically applied knowledge on health impacts of air pollution, b) perceived comfort in identifying at-risk patients and counseling them on relevant preventive health behaviors, c) intentions/barriers to counseling patients, d) beliefs and attitudes related to the health harms of air pollution, and e) perceptions of the overall acceptability of the intervention.Results The 218 participants included learners and clinicians in medicine, nursing, and advanced practice provision. Respondents’ knowledge scores and self-reported level of comfort in identifying high-risk patients and counseling them on preventative health behaviors increased significantly pre-/post-intervention. The video also effectively altered participants’ misperceptions about the health impacts of air pollution. While less than half of participants (43.6%) reported they intended to engage in counseling patients as a result of watching the video, 52.3% indicated they might do so. Lack of time during clinical encounters and lack of training were reported as persistent barriers to engaging in this counseling. Overall, participants found the video to be an effective educational tool, indicating that they wanted their colleagues and patients to watch the video and would like to see further short animated videos on other environmental health topics.Conclusions A two-minute animated educational video significantly improved knowledge of inequitable health impacts of air pollution and improved perceived comfort in identifying and counseling at-risk patients among health professional learners and clinicians regardless of profession, level of training, or pre-intervention knowledge level. Academic health professional training programs and health systems should consider adopting this modality as a tool for educating learners, clinicians, and patients on environmental health risks.

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“…Even though planetary health frameworks, consensus statements, and early teaching experience have begun to be reported, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 persistent barriers to the implementation of planetary health concepts, including the health impacts of climate change and the principles of sustainable health care, are evident within medical education. 11 , 12 Consequently, the implementation of this content into predominantly biomedically focused curricula is frequently piecemeal, opportunistic, unidirectional and poorly related to clinical practice.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, addressing the socio‐economic and environmental determinants of health under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework ( https://sdgs.un.org/goals ), indigenous eco‐health‐centric leadership, promotion of systems thinking and change, and experiential, practice‐based learning that cultivates interprofessional teamwork, advocacy and leadership development. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 15 A 2019 interactive perspective provides a useful open access resource in this direction. 16 More recently, Emory University students and staff reported their experience in the incorporation of climate content into selected aspects of the pre‐clinical curriculum.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Internationally, the emerging curriculum principles to address this challenge align with global health priorities. Specifically, addressing the socio‐economic and environmental determinants of health under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework (https://sdgs.un.org/goals), indigenous eco‐health‐centric leadership, promotion of systems thinking and change, and experiential, practice‐based learning that cultivates interprofessional teamwork, advocacy and leadership development 3‐7,9,10,15 . A 2019 interactive perspective provides a useful open access resource in this direction 16 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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A planetary health–organ system map to integrate climate change and health content into medical curricula

Burch

Beaton

Simpson

et al. 2022

Medical Journal of Australia

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Teaching medical students about the impacts of climate change on human health

Cited by 18 publications

References 5 publications

Unravelling the Social and Economic Consequences of Climate Change on Sustainable Livelihoods on Coastal Communities in South Africa

Unravelling the Social and Economic Consequences of Climate Change on Sustainable Livelihoods on Coastal Communities in South Africa

Short animated video increases knowledge and comfort in clinical counseling on inequitable health impacts of air pollution among interprofessional health learners and clinicians

A planetary health–organ system map to integrate climate change and health content into medical curricula

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