Integrating Climate Change into Health Education

Medical students, trainees, attending physicians, and medical societies recognise the importance of integrating climate change and health education (CCHE) into training to help clinicians support people’s health and well-being given extreme weather events. In line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and SDG3 ‘Good Health and Well-being’, this case study describes the management and operational change involved in implementing CCHE content at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM). Following a curriculum inventory, various curricular interventions were piloted, for example, adding supplementary materials, stand-alone lectures, community engagement opportunities, and reflection sessions. The curricular arc needed to include fundamental knowledge, clinical skills training, quality improvement, healthcare waste management, community engagement, and advocacy, with student assessments undertaken during routine examinations, clinical competencies, simulations, and written reflections. Using a change model and quality improvement framework to recreate a sense of urgency, define the problem, identify and address potential barriers, and adopt a Plan-Do-Study-Act model means the approach could be generalised across curriculum and education types. While implementation took several years to complete, small changes over time were a way to integrate CCHE into demanding medical school curricula in support of achieving SDG3.