A cross-sectional study to assess faculty and student knowledge of climate change and health: Readiness for curricular integration.

Aims: To examine the perceived knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding climate change and health of academic faculty and students in programmes for health professionals and to identify barriers/facilitators to and resources required for curriculum integration.

Design: Cross-sectional survey eliciting quantitative and open-ended responses.

Methods: A 22-question survey to assess climate-health knowledge/attitudes/beliefs was distributed to all students and faculty (n = 224) at one academic institution in the United States. Open-ended questions addressed barriers, facilitators and required resources. Descriptive statistics are reported, and thematic analysis was used to identify themes from open-ended responses.

Results: Response rate was 15%. Most respondents (76%) were between 20 and 34 years old. The majority were from nursing (39%), occupational therapy (13%) and communication speech disorders (12.5%). Most respondents perceived climate change as relevant to direct patient care (78%) and believed that it is impacting the health of individuals (86%) and should be integrated into curricula (89%). Yet, most (60%) reported modest to no knowledge about the health impacts. Faculty reported little to no comfort teaching climate change and health concepts (76%). Open-ended responses identified student/faculty receptivity and professional/clinical relevance as important facilitators of successful integration. Barriers included intensity of programmes; time and competing curricular priorities; and a lack of faculty expertise, resources, institutional and professional commitment.

Conclusions: Most health professions students and faculty indicated that educating future health professionals about climate change and health is important, but existing barriers must be addressed.

Impact: This study addressed student and faculty perceptions of integrating climate change and health into health professions curricula. Discipline-specific and interprofessional educational approaches are necessary to optimize future health professionals' efforts to prevent and mitigate climate change impacts for at-risk patients, communities and populations.