Promoting climate change issues in medical education: Lessons from a student-driven advocacy project in a Canadian Medical school

Abstract

Health advocacy is an essential competency prescribed by many professional medical bodies tasked with fostering the development of medical trainees into well-rounded physicians. With increasing recognition of the ramifications of the negative impacts of climate change on population health, mitigation intervention is gaining traction as an important area in public health and physician's advocacy work. However, several lines of evidence show that Canadian medical training provides limited curricular activities to understand the impacts of climate change on health. This report highlights an advocacy effort by a group of medical students at McMaster University, Canada to promote better awareness and formal educational activities on climate change and health among medical learners. The project involves educational activities, didactic lectures, and an engagement with the medical school administration to promote curricular activities and resources on climate change and health. The lessons from this advocacy work include the need for better integration of climate change issues and health education into medical training, celebrating climate advocacy work, and creating a formalized portfolio within medical school administration to support climate change and health issues.

Keywords

• Climate change
• Curriculum
• Health
• Medical education
• Planetary health