EDUCATION
Current and future health care workers will learn to incorporate sustainability concepts into everything they do. Just as we incorporate safety into day-to-day work today.
Education occurs throughout the facility.
As we train future health care workers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals and others) and update training for the current health care workforce, it will become increasingly important to include information on how to incorporate actions to support climate-resilient, low-carbon, sustainable health systems into their health care practices. For future healthcare workers, introducing this information into their curriculum is starting to happen, albeit slowly. For the current workforce, incorporating this information into existing practices such as quality improvement, wellness practices and continuing education credits is essential. We need to create a culture of sustainability.
Quality Improvement
Sustainability can be the focus of Quality Improvement projects and education.
Resources
How to do a Sustain-QI project.
Mindful Clinical Practice
Avoiding unnecessary testing and promoting prevention of disease.
Resources
Public Health Ontario - Prevention of disease
How to calculate the carbon footprint of a building.
Carbon footprint of tests - Impact of Choosing Wisely
Curriculum Integration
Climate change and sustainability can be included in student training curriculum.
Resources
Read the education PEACH Byte here.
Planetary Health competencies for medical students.
Wellness
Consider projects which improve both staff and patient wellness.
Resources
An on-line training resource for wellness and resilience.