??The long-term survival of humans depend on the health of the planet, and all institutions – including health professionals training schools – have a role to play in planetary health.
With this in mind, two students at Stellenbosch 肆客足球's (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Michelle Moloto and Mosibudi Matlatse, recently completed Planetary Health Report Cards (PHRC) on behalf of the MBChB and Physiotherapy programmes at SU.
Moloto is a fifth-year medical student and the Sustainability Manager for the Tygerberg Students Representative Council (TSRC), while Matlatse is a second-year physiotherapy student and a member of the Dean's Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability (DACES).
Grading faculties' planetary health initiatives
The PHRC was developed in 2019 and is a global student-led initiative that enables health sciences students to “grade" their faculty's inclusion of planetary health in their programmes. The grading teams, mentored by faculty members, complete the report card and identify opportunities for improvement. The results are published annually to track institutional change over time. To date, the PHRC evaluates more than 100 health professionals training schools in 15 countries.
The students were encouraged to do the PHRC by Professor Bob Mash from the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine. They started working on the report card in December last year and submitted the report at the end of March. It was published in April.
The report card looked at how the programmes scored in the areas of curriculum, interdisciplinary research, community outreach and advocacy, support for student-led initiatives, and campus sustainability. The students interviewed various faculty members from respective divisions and departments, filled out the questionnaires for each section, and gave scores based on the responses.
“It's a metric-based tool so there was a template with questions we could ask relevant staff members," said Moloto.
Programme scores
The MBChB and the Physiotherapy programmes both scored B for curricula. The university scored B-minus for Interdisciplinary Research; B-minus for Community Outreach and Advocacy, B for Support for Student-led Initiatives, and B-plus for Campus Sustainability.
Overall, the report found that SU integrates planetary health education into its curriculum in a comprehensive manner. It found the renewed MBChB curriculum effectively covers related content, ensuring early exposure for students and facilitating discussions on planetary health among peers and patients.
Among the report card's recommendations was for the university to consider incorporating elective courses to allow students to delve deeper into planetary health.
“This will also encourage critical thinking about the impact of environmental factors on health, preparing students to learn how to engage in addressing emerging health issues related to climate change and environmental degradation," Moloto and Matlatse note.
On Interdisciplinary research (B-), the report said the university offers various workshops focused on planetary health, to promote research and discussion in this field. However, these are not specifically tailored for students.
On Community Outreach and Advocacy (B-), the report found the FMHS currently has limited community outreach initiatives related to planetary health. “To enhance its impact in this area, the faculty could consider expanding its partnerships with organisations focused on planetary health advocacy," they recommend.
On Support for Student-led initiatives (B), the report found SU, as a whole, supports student-led initiatives but stated that more work can be done to encourage students to take part in planetary health initiatives.
On Campus Sustainability (B+), the report said SU has done tremendous work and invested a lot of money to ensure campus sustainability.
Navigate environmental impact on health
Both students say they enjoyed the process of compiling the report card, adding that it's an important initiative. “As future healthcare professionals we must be prepared to address the impact of human-caused, or manmade environmental changes on our patients' health," says Matlatse, adding that the report card was well received by the Division of Physiotherapy. “An email has already gone out advising staff members on how to better integrate planetary health into the curriculum, so it's a work in progress."
Moloto said she believes SU is dedicated to fostering an environmentally conscious campus. “This initiative highlights areas where we are excelling already but also help us identify opportunities for growth. By actively participating in this initiative, we've demonstrated our commitment to sustainability as an institution and will hopefully encourage others to follow suit."
Students taking ownership of planetary health
Mash hails the Planetary Health report card initiative. “This is student-led, which is amazing. It's students saying that this is an important topic, and asking whether we are tackling it properly and interrogating whether their own training programmes are dealing with the issue adequately. The whole climate change and planetary health movement has been led by young people.
“It's a global initiative so one can compare how one is doing as a university or a programme within your university with the same programme at other universities in the same country, region or globally and get a sense of how you're doing relative to peers. Also, it generates some very practical recommendations for what is missing in the course."
Photo caption: Mosibudi Matlatse? and Michelle Moloto.?
