Our societies are dealing with complex sustainability problems. Health has been defined by the United Nations as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, revealing the close link between health issues and both ecological and environmental issues. Understanding and addressing these issues requires future healthcare professionals to develop specific knowledge and skills. These abilities need to be integrated into their training programs, though this cannot be taken for granted. This article explores the following question: How can we adapt the curriculum for future healthcare professionals in order to prepare them for sustainability challenges? To these questions, we herein attempt to provide four possible responses: 1) a multi-level commitment to share responsibility; 2) identification of the sustainability skills that health care students need to acquire; 3) integration of the latter into training courses and programs; 4) adaptation of teaching methods to enable students to engage in learning, so as to transform themselves and have authentic experiences. We hope that this thinking framework, in addition to the practical recommendations it contains, will help those with a role to play in healthcare sciences curricula.
What is already known about this topic?
We know that health is one of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, and that the links between health and healthcare, on the one hand, and both ecological and environmental issues, on the other, are increasingly well documented. We also know that most healthcare sciences curricula in French-speaking Belgium do not yet adequately prepare future healthcare professionals for the sustainability issues they will be confronted with in their professional lives. While most of the professionals who have a role to play in healthcare sciences education are aware of the relevance of adapting education to these issues, they mostly lack the pedagogical resources to facilitate these changes.
What does this article bring up for us?
This article suggests a structure, examples and practical recommendations in order to further facilitate thinking and discussion on how to adapt the curriculum of future healthcare professionals in order to better prepare them for sustainability challenges.
Keywords
Sustainable development goals, education, competences, curriculum, pedagogy