Preparing Australian medical students for climate change.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Climate change is now recognised as a global public health problem and the future medical workforce will be working during a period when the health impacts of climate change are likely to be significant. OBJECTIVE: This article discusses the ongoing training on the health impacts of climate change for the current and future medical workforce. DISCUSSION: The role of medical practitioners in the coming decades will need to include assisting communities to adapt to changing climatic conditions, managing climate sensitive illnesses, and contributing to mitigation efforts to prevent climate change. Climate change and health should be built into the curricula of Australian medical schools spanning public health, clinical medicine, preventive health and global health. We propose a problem based learning approach to highlight clinical and public health implications, and present two hypothetical case studies suitable for teaching purposes.