Environmental Health Education in the Medical School Curriculum

This chapter serves to explain the link between a curricular renewal project that has already been completed and one that is envisaged as an aspirational goal and serves as the focus of the book. The Physicianship Curriculum has its origins in courses introduced in 1998 and that evolved over two decades in the undergraduate medical program at McGill University. The innovative modules and learning activities were initially rolled out under the ambit of two distinct conceptual streams: professionalism and healing in medicine. Ongoing development continued using “physicianship” as a new descriptive label. Physicianship refers to the dual roles of the physician: the physician as professional and as healer. The flagship course of the physicianship component of McGill’s medical school curriculum has been a 4-year longitudinal apprenticeship; it is described in detail.

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The impact of integrating environmental health into medical school curricula: a survey-based study

BMC Medical Education ◽

10.1186/s12909-020-02458-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Kligler ◽

Genevieve Pinto Zipp ◽

Carmela Rocchetti ◽

Michelle Secic ◽

Erin Speiser Ihde

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Medical Education ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical School ◽

Environmental Health ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Learning Objectives ◽

Lead Contamination ◽

Institute Of Medicine ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Inclusion of environmental health (EH) in medical education serves as a catalyst for preparing future physicians to address issues as complex as climate change and health, water pollution and lead contamination. However, previous research has found EH education to be largely lacking in U.S. medical education, putting future physicians at risk of not having the expertise to address patients’ environmental illnesses, nor speak to prevention. Methods Environmental health (EH) knowledge and skills were incorporated into the first-year medical school curriculum at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine (Nutley, New Jersey), via a two-hour interactive large group learning module with follow up activities. Students completed the Environmental Health in Med School (EHMS) survey before and after the year 1 EH module. This survey evaluates medical students’ attitudes, awareness and professionalism regarding environmental health. In year 2, students completed the Environmental Health Survey II, which measured students’ perceptions of preparedness to discuss EH with future patients. The research team created both surveys based upon learning objectives that broadly aligned with the Institute of Medicine six competency-based environmental health learning objectives. Results 36 year 1 students completed both the pre and post EHMS surveys. McNemar’s test was used for paired comparisons. Results identified no statistically significant changes from pre to post surveys, identifying a dramatic ceiling. When comparing year 2, EHS II pre-survey (n = 84) and post-survey (n = 79) responses, a statistically significant positive change in students’ self-reported sense of preparedness to discuss environmental health with their patients following the curriculum intervention was noted. Conclusions Our conclusion for the EHMS in Year 1 was that the current generation of medical students at this school is already extremely aware of and concerned about the impact of environmental issues on health. Through the EHS II in Year 2, we found that the six-week environmental health module combining didactic and experiential elements significantly increased medical students’ self-reported sense of preparedness to discuss environmental health issues, including climate change, with their patients.

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Culinary Medicine Training in Core Medical School Curriculum Improved Medical Student Nutrition Knowledge and Confidence in Providing Nutrition Counseling

American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine ◽

10.1177/15598276211021749 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 155982762110217

Author(s):

Christopher R. D’Adamo ◽

Kayli Workman ◽

Christine Barnabic ◽

Norman Retener ◽

Bernadette Siaton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Medical Students ◽

Medical School ◽

Patient Care ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Nutrition Knowledge ◽

Medical School Curriculum ◽

Nutrition Counseling ◽

Patient Counseling ◽

Culinary Medicine

Background: Elective culinary medicine education has become popular to help fill important gaps in physician nutrition training. The implementation and outcomes among the inaugural cohort of medical students who received culinary medicine training as a required component of medical school curriculum at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are described. Methods: Following a series of elective pilot sessions, culinary medicine training was provided to all first-year medical students in the 2019-2020 academic year. The 3-hour training included evidence-based nutrition lecture, cooking simple recipes, and group discussion of the application to personal and patient care. Pre-/postsession questionnaires assessed nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes as well as nutritional counseling confidence. Paired t-tests estimated mean differences in outcomes pre- and posttraining. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. Results: Overall, 119 of 125 (95.2%) students provided pre- and posttraining outcomes data. All nutritional and patient counseling outcomes improved ( P < .05). Themes of being better prepared to address healthy eating barriers in patient care and personal ability to make healthy dietary changes were noted in qualitative analysis. Conclusion: One session of culinary medicine training in core medical student curriculum was feasible and improved medical student nutrition knowledge, skills, and attitudes and confidence in patient nutrition counseling.

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Teaching Pathology in an Integrated Preclinical Medical School Curriculum and Adaptations to COVID-19 Restrictions

Academic Pathology ◽

10.1177/23742895211015337 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 237428952110153

Author(s):

Matthew D. Krasowski ◽

John L. Blau ◽

Stephanie J. Chen ◽

Karra A. Jones ◽

Thomas J. Schmidt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical School ◽

Small Groups ◽

Integrated Curriculum ◽

Sudden Change ◽

Health Professions ◽

School Curriculum ◽

Medical School Curriculum ◽

Professional Schools ◽

Large Group ◽

Virtual Instruction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a major impact on education at all age levels, including professional schools and health professions programs. We describe the experience of adapting preclinical medical school courses within an integrated curriculum to virtual instruction. A major feature of two of the courses were pathology small groups adapted from pathology courses in the previous medical school curriculum. These small groups were designed to use facilitated groups of 8 to 10 students. With a sudden change to virtual learning, these small groups were shifted to large group virtual sessions. In general, the conversion went well, with ongoing optimization of the format of the large group sessions mainly occurring over the first several sessions. End-of-course student evaluations were generally positive, but with a preference toward returning to live sessions in the future. Scores on 5 multiple choice examinations in the spring 2020 course were essentially identical in mean, standard deviation, and distribution to examinations in the previous 2 years of the course that had similar layout and topic organization. We discuss the challenges and successes of the switch to virtual instruction and of teaching pathology content within an integrated medical school curriculum.

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