- Title
- The attitudes of Australian medical students to the inclusion of the topic of "health impacts of climate change" in the medical curriculum
- Creator
- Horton, Graeme Leonard
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Medical education must prepare doctors to be able to work with patients and communities as they face emerging challenges. Climate change has been described by leading authorities as the defining issue for public health during this century and the greatest of threats to health. Educational interventions are best devised with input from students as stakeholders. This project explored the attitudes of Australian medical students about the health impacts of climate change and the relevance of these issues to medical school curricula. The project also explored the implications of these student attitudes to curriculum planning from the perspective of medical educators. This study is a mixed methods design in three stages. This design was selected because in this new area of educational research, it enabled the exploration of beliefs and ideas for change from stakeholders; the assessment of how representative certain views were amongst the student population, and finally a study of the perceived implications of student opinion on future curriculum design. In Stage 1, 27 students from two universities were interviewed about climate change, and what methods of learning they would most engage with in exploring topics relating to climate change and health. In Stage 2, 283 students from four universities in three states of Australia (RR=8.7%) completed a questionnaire which was informed by issues raised by students in Stage 1. Students indicated support for climate change in the curriculum, but raised concerns about potential loss of other important curriculum content. Analyses showed that support for climate change issues in the curriculum was associated with female gender and with understanding climate change to be relevant to patient care. In Stage 3, fourteen medical educators were asked about their own views on climate change and how the findings from Stages 1 and 2 could influence medical curriculum planning. Climate change was seen as a politically-charged topic. The range of views which students bring to such discussion were seen to require sensitive and skilful management so as to ensure safe learning environments. Our findings indicate that the use of examples relating to climate change health impacts and environmental sustainability in the medical curriculum may be used to teach core knowledge and competencies for doctors, and to give an accurate understanding of the evolving determinants of health in a changing world.
- Subject
- climate change; medical education; sustainability; patients; students; health impacts
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384937
- Identifier
- uon:32143
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Graeme Leonard Horton
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 9 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 463 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |