Consultation seminar on priority learning outcomes for sustainable medical education

The health service is facing a new and pressing challenge. With climate change already damaging the health of disadvantaged groups in the UK and abroad, the NHS is called upon to lead the way in carbon reduction and transformation to a resilient, health-promoting health system. Medical education and training are central to shaping a sustainable future for health, and HEFCE, the HEA, Royal Colleges and the NHS have called on universities to ensure that medical graduates are sustainability-literate. The Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE) Network has brought together a national group of experts who have drafted priority learning outcomes for undergraduate and postgraduate training in sustainability in healthcare. These learning outcomes integrate research findings from a range of research disciplines including: climate science, clinical epidemiology and social science thinking on the management of change. At the suggestion of the General Medical Council, the Network now proposes a comprehensive and rigorous consultation process to engage the wider medical education community in the refinement and application of these outcomes.

Three overarching learning objectives for sustainability and health care:

•Describe how the environment and human health interact at different levels
•Show the knowledge and skills needed to improve the environmental sustainability of health systems
•Discuss how the duty of a doctor to protect and promote health is affected by the dependence of human health on the local and global environment