Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Departments of Environmental Medicine, Public Health, and Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Yale J Biol Med. 2023 Jun 30;96(2):171-184. doi: 10.59249/PYIW9718. eCollection 2023 Jun.
Despite increasing awareness of the public and global health ramifications of climate change, there is a lack of curricula discussing climate change within medical education. Where greater societal awareness and improved scientific understanding have begun to grab the attention of members of the medical education community, there is the precedent, the desire, and the need to incorporate climate-health topics into medical education. We hosted semi-structured interviews (n=9) with faculty members at different institutions across the country who have been involved with climate change education. We pursued a qualitative approach to begin an inter-institutional conversation and better understand what support our colleagues and peers need to expand climate-health education, and we identified a set of key barriers to implementation: Obtaining Institutional Resources, Formalizing Initiative Leadership, and Empowering Faculty Involvement. We also began to appreciate the creative strategies that programs across the country have employed to tackle these challenges. Working with interested students to manage workload, advocating for funded faculty positions, and integrating curricular materials in multiple formats are just a few of the approaches that have helped climate-health initiatives to achieve longevity and penetration in the curriculum. A better identification of the challenges and drivers for success in curricular efforts can provide a roadmap to more efficient implementation of climate-health topics within medical education.
尽管公众和全球对气候变化的健康影响的认识不断提高，但医学教育中仍缺乏讨论气候变化的课程。在社会意识的提高和科学理解的改善开始引起医学教育界成员关注的同时，也有先例、愿望和需要将气候-健康主题纳入医学教育。我们对全国不同机构的参与气候变化教育的教师进行了半结构化访谈（n=9）。我们采用定性方法开始进行机构间的对话，以更好地了解我们的同事和同行需要哪些支持来扩大气候-健康教育，并确定了实施的一系列关键障碍：获得机构资源、使倡议领导层正式化和增强教师参与度。我们还开始欣赏全国各个项目采用的创新策略来应对这些挑战。与有兴趣的学生合作管理工作量，争取有资金支持的教师职位，以及以多种格式整合课程材料，这些都是帮助气候-健康倡议在课程中保持长久和深入的方法。更好地确定课程努力的挑战和成功驱动因素，可以为在医学教育中更有效地实施气候-健康主题提供路线图。
