Resident Children's Hospital Colorado Denver, Colorado, United States
Background: Climate change is one of the greatest threats to human health, and children are particularly vulnerable. The American Academy of Pediatrics declared in 2015: “Pediatricians can play a valuable role in the societal response to this global challenge”. Pediatricians are uniquely positioned to address climate change due to their health expertise and skills as child advocates. Despite growing conversation about training climate physicians, climate medicine education is neither standardized nor widespread. Effective curricula must be developed so that pediatric residents are trained to address this critical issue. Objective: To design, implement, and evaluate a curriculum educating pediatric residents on the impact of climate change on child health. Design/Methods: This multicomponent curriculum spans six months (2023) and includes 1) bi-monthly email newsletters and 2) monthly lectures. Newsletters provided pediatric residents (n=120) with core information on climate change and pediatric health. The monthly lectures were delivered to small groups (n=4-6/mo) of pediatric interns during their Advocacy rotation. A retrospective pre-post survey assessed 1) self-reported knowledge of, 2) confidence in addressing, and 3) motivation to learn more about climate and health. The responses were analyzed using a paired T-test; the open-ended responses were analyzed for core themes. This study was approved by our institution’s IRB. Results: There was a significant increase in resident satisfaction with their climate medicine knowledge, confidence in applying this knowledge to their clinical practice, and awareness of how they could become more involved (n=17, P < 0.001 across all domains). Residents generally reported high satisfaction with the curriculum (>95%) and requested more data, clinical examples, and advocacy opportunities.
Conclusion(s): The findings demonstrate a strong association between participation in this program and increased pediatric resident self-efficacy in the integration of climate medicine into practice. This comprehensive curriculum provides an innovative strategy to empower residents to advocate for their patients and the planet. Although the results were limited by self-reported data and a relatively small sample size, a recurring curriculum has been integrated into resident advocacy education at our institution based on the feasibility and impact of this study. This method of education is an effective way to deliver essential knowledge.
