Conceptual frameworks, competencies, contents and teaching methods in planetary health education for health students and professionals: a global systematic scoping review | BMC Medical Education
Whitmee S, Haines A, Beyrer C, Boltz F, Capon AG, De Souza Dias BF, et al. Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission on planetary health. Lancet. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60901-1.
Google Scholar
McGinnis R, Meadows DH, Meadows DL, Randers J, Behren WW. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. Demography. 1973
Nations U. UN chronicle. [Cited 2023 Nov 19]. As the World’s Population Surpasses 8 Billion, What Are the Implications for Planetary Health and Sustainability? Available from:
Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson Å, Chapin FS, Lambin E, et al. Planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecol Soc. 2009. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03180-140232.
Google Scholar
Rockström J, Gupta J, Qin D, Lade SJ, Abrams JF, Andersen LS, et al. Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature. 2023;619(7968):102–11.
Google Scholar
Oxford U of. Life Expectancy – Our world i data. [Cited 2023 Nov 19]. Available from:
Planetary Health Alliance. Planetary Health. [Cited 2023 Nov 19]. Available from:
IPCC. Strengthening and Implementing the Global Response. In: Global Warming of 15°C. 2022.
Bongaarts J. IPBES, 2019. Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Popul Dev Rev. 2019
Seltenrich N. Down to earth: the emerging field of planetary health. Environ Health Perspect. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2374.
Google Scholar
Carlos Alberto Faerron Guzmán Cristina O’Callaghan Gordo. Guia de recerca en Salut Planetària. 2023. Report No.: PID_00291855.
Messerly P, Murniningtyas E, Eloundou-Enyegue P, Foli EG, Furman E, Glassman A, et al. Global Sustainable Development Report 2019: The Future is Now – Science for Achieving Sustainable Development. United Nations. 2019
Myers SS, Pivor JI, Saraiva AM. The São Paulo declaration on planetary health. Lancet. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02181-4.
Google Scholar
Shaw E, Walpole S, McLean M, Alvarez-Nieto C, Barna S, Bazin K, et al. AMEE consensus statement: planetary health and education for sustainable healthcare. Med Teach. 2021;43(3):272–86.
Google Scholar
Butler A, Hall H, Copnell B. A Guide to Writing a Qualitative Systematic Review Protocol to Enhance Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Health Care. Worldviews Evid Based Nurs. 2016;13(3):241–9.
Google Scholar
Guzmán CAF, Aguirre A, Astle B, Barros E, Bayles B, Chimbari M, et al. A framework to guide planetary health education. Lancet Planet Health. 2021;5(5):e253–5.
Google Scholar
Adisasmito WB, Almuhairi S, Behravesh CB, Bilivogui P, Bukachi SA, Casas N, et al. One Health: A new definition for a sustainable and healthy future. PLoS Pathog. 2022;18(6).
United Nations General Assembly. Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. 2015.
Potter TM. Planetary Health: An Essential Framework for Nursing Education and Practice. Creat Nurs. 2021;27(4):226–30.
Google Scholar
Capetola T, Noy S, Patrick R. Planetary health pedagogy: preparing health promoters for 21st-century environmental challenges. Health Promot J Austr. 2022;33(Suppl 1(Suppl 1)):17–21.
Google Scholar
Vandenberg SY. Planetary Health: Preparing Nursing Students for the Future. Nurse Educ. 2023;48(6):293–7.
Google Scholar
Flaten CB, Pechacek JM, Potter TM, Mueller C. Planetary health in nursing curricula: how one school transformed nursing curricula as they integrated planetary health concepts with the 2021 AACN essentials. J Prof Nurs. 2023;49:52–6.
Google Scholar
Angelos J, Arens A, Johnson H, Cadriel J, Osburn B. One Health in food safety and security education: A curricular framework. Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis. 2016;44:29–33.
Google Scholar
Schwind JS, Gilardi KVK, Beasley VR, Mazet JAK, Smith WA. Advancing the “One Health” workforce by integrating ecosystem health practice into veterinary medical education: The Envirovet Summer Institute. Health Educ J. 2016;75(2):170–83. Available from:
Rabinowitz PM, Natterson-Horowitz BJ, Kahn LH, Kock R, Pappaioanou M. Incorporating one health into medical education. BMC Med Educ. 2017;17(1):45.
Google Scholar
Amuguni H, Bikaako W, Naigaga I, Bazeyo W. Building a framework for the design and implementation of one health curricula in East and Central Africa: OHCEAs one health training modules development process. One Health. 2019;7:2.
Google Scholar
Baines AE, Errecaborde K, Ames TR, Goldsmith TJ, Kinzer H, Mahero M, et al. One Health as a Core Component of Veterinary Medicine: Defining Day-1 Public Health Competencies for the Veterinary Workforce. J Vet Med Educ. 2024;51(2):176–84. Available from:
Oerther DB, Oerther SE. Improving Interprofessional Environmental Health Education Using the Leave No One Behind Framework. Am J Public Health. 2022;112(S3):S250–2.
Google Scholar
Fia M, Ghasemzadeh K, Paletta A. How higher education institutions walk their talk on the 2030 agenda: a systematic literature review. High Educ Policy. 2022;1–34.
Baldwin C, Lewison RL, Lieske SN, Beger M, Hines E, Dearden P, et al. Using the DPSIR framework for transdisciplinary training and knowledge elicitation in the Gulf of Thailand. Ocean Coast Manag. 2016;134:163–72. Available from:
Schenk EC. Environmental Stewardship in Nursing: Introducing the “WE ACT-PLEASE” Framework. Creat Nurs. 2019;25(3):222–31.
Google Scholar
Jacobsen KH, Waggett CE. Global health education for the post-pandemic years: parity, people, planet, priorities, and practices. Glob Health Res Policy. 2022;7(1):1.
Google Scholar
Okada A, Gray P. A Climate Change and Sustainability Education Movement: Networks, Open Schooling, and the ‘CARE-KNOW-DO’ Framework. Sustainability (Switzerland). 2023;15(3). Available from:
Valois P, Blouin P, Ouellet C, Renaud JS, Bélanger D, Gosselin P. The Health Impacts of Climate Change: A Continuing Medical Education Needs Assessment Framework. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2016;36(3):218–25.
Google Scholar
Torres-Alzate H. Nursing global health competencies framework. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2019;40(5):295–9.
Google Scholar
Holbrook AM, Akbar G, Eastwood J. Meeting the challenge of human-induced climate change: reshaping social work education. Social Work Education. 2019;38(8):955–67. Available from:
Shahmanesh M, Harling G, Coltart CEM, Bailey H, King C, Gibbs J, et al. From the micro to the macro to improve health: microorganism ecology and society in teaching infectious disease epidemiology. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(6):e142–7. Available from:
Jagals P, Ebi K. Core competencies for health workers to deal with climate and environmental change. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083849.
Google Scholar
Liu RW, Mantel M, Walraven G, Atwoli L, Ngugi AK. Medical education and population health-a framework in the design of a new undergraduate program. Front Public Health. 2022;10:1068092.
Google Scholar
Oe H, Yamaoka Y, Ochiai H. A qualitative assessment of community learning initiatives for environmental awareness and behaviour change: applying UNESCO education for sustainable development (ESD) framework. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063528.
Google Scholar
Agusdinata DB. The role of universities in SDGs solution co-creation and implementation: a human-centered design and shared-action learning process. Sustain Sci. 2022;17(4):1589–604.
Google Scholar
De-Abreu S, Vogt KA, Schreier A, Fawcett P, Marchand ME, Vogt DJ, et al. Teaching holistic environmental thought: A classroom approach. Think Skills Creat. 2022;46. Available from:
Caron RM, Neeley S, Eldredge C, Goodman AC, Oerther DB, Satz AB, et al. Health in all education: a transdisciplinary learning outcomes framework. Am J Prev Med. 2023;64(5):772–9.
Google Scholar
Buckley JB, Michel JO, Zint M, Smedick W, Rice EM. A framework for graduate leadership education for sustainability guided by the SDGs. New Dir Stud Leadersh. 2023;2023(179):43–57.
Google Scholar
Droubi S, Galamba A, Fernandes FL, de Mendonça AA, Heffron RJ. Transforming education for the just transition. Energy Res Soc Sci. 2023;100. Available from:
Tomassi A, Caforio A, Romano E, Lamponi E, Pollini A. The development of a Competence Framework for Environmental Education complying with the European Qualifications Framework and the European Green Deal. Journal of Environmental Education. 2024;55(2):153–79. Available from:
MacKenzie-Shalders K, Zadow G, Hensley-Hackett K, Marko S, McLean M. Rapid review: Guides and frameworks to inform planetary health education for health professions. Health Promot J Austr. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.819.
Google Scholar
Lake D, Fernando H, Eardley D. The social lab classroom: Wrestling with—and learning from—sustainability challenges. Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy. 2016;12(1):76–87. Available from:
Burkholder KC, Devereaux J, Grady C, Solitro M, Mooney SM. Longitudinal study of the impacts of a climate change curriculum on undergraduate student learning: Initial results. Sustainability (Switzerland). 2017;9(6). Available from:
Lehtonen A, Salonen A, Cantell H, Riuttanen L. A pedagogy of interconnectedness for encountering climate change as a wicked sustainability problem. J Clean Prod. 2018;199:860–7. Available from:
Gilbert LA, Gross DS, Kreutz KJ. Developing undergraduate students’ systems thinking skills with an InTeGrate module. Journal of Geoscience Education. 2019;67(1):34–49. Available from:
McAlister MM, Zhang Q, Annis J, Schweitzer RW, Guidotti S, Mihelcic JR. Systems Thinking for Effective Interventions in Global Environmental Health. Environ Sci Technol. 2022;56(2):732–8. Available from:
Sanders CE, Byrd AR, Gibson KE, Golson A, Lamm KW, Lamm AJ. Teaching systems-thinking concepts with hypothetical case scenarios: an exploration in food-systems science education. 2023. Foods. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12142663.
O’Callaghan-Gordo C, Moreno A, Bosque-Prous M, et al. Responding to the need of postgraduate education for Planetary Health: Development of an online Master’s Degree. Available from: https://www.uoc.edu/portal/en/elearning-innovation.
Gruner D, Pottie K, Archibald D, Allison J, Sabourin V, Belcaid I, et al. Introducing global health into the undergraduate medical school curriculum using an e-learning program: a mixed method pilot study. BMC Med Educ. 2015;15:142.
Google Scholar
Buregyeya E, Atusingwize E, Nsamba P, Nalwadda C, Osuret J, Kalibala P, et al. Lessons from a community based interdisciplinary learning exposure: benefits for both students and communities in Uganda. BMC Med Educ. 2021;21(1):5.
Google Scholar
Hess KY, Rihtman T. Moving from theory to practice in occupational therapy education for planetary health: a theoretical view. Aust Occup Ther J. 2023;70(4):460–70.
Google Scholar
Canosa E, Trumpey J, Espinoza Bardales LM, Cardoza J. Living Learning Communities as Climate Change Pedagogy: Understanding the Impact of the Sustainable Living Experience on Climate Change Leadership among First Year Students. Sustainability (Switzerland). 2022;14(21). Available from:
Lemery J, Sorensen C, Balbus J, Newman L, Davis C, Reno E, et al. Science policy training for a new physician leader: description and framework of a novel climate and health science policy fellowship. AEM Educ Train. 2019;3(3):233–42.
Google Scholar
M RO, Sharma V, Casanova J, Corvin J, Hoare I. Developing Global Health Diplomacy-related Skills Using a COVID-19-like Epidemic Simulation as a Learning Strategy. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021;105(1):59–65.
Google Scholar
Mbah M, Ajaps S, Molthan-Hill P. A systematic review of the deployment of indigenous knowledge systems towards climate change adaptation in developing world contexts: Implications for climate change education. Sustainability (Switzerland). 2021;13(9). Available from:
Álvarez-Nieto C, Richardson J, Parra-Anguita G, Linares-Abad M, Huss N, Grande-Gascón ML, et al. Developing digital educational materials for nursing and sustainability: the results of an observational study. Nurse Educ Today. 2018;60:139–46.
Google Scholar
Wilby KJ, Black EK, Benetoli A, Paravattil B. Students’ conception of local responses to global problems for a more peaceful and sustainable world: A collaborative education project between Brazil, Canada, Qatar, and New Zealand. JACCP Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. 2022;5(6):605–12. Available from:
Ál A, Mulloy KB. Developing a Problem-Based Learning Approach to the Integration of Environmental and Occupational Health Topics into Medical School Curriculum. J Occup Environ Med. 2018;60(8):754–9.
Google Scholar
Barrett B, Grabow M, Middlecamp C, Mooney M, Checovich MM, Converse AK, et al. Mindful climate action: health and environmental co-benefits from mindfulness-based behavioral training. Sustainability. 2016. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8101040.
Google Scholar
Nussbaum ME, Cordova JR, Rehmat AP. Refutation texts for effective climate change education. Journal of Geoscience Education. 2017;65(1):23–34. Available from:
Leimbach T, Milstein T. Learning to change: Climate action pedagogy. Australian Journal of Adult Learning. 2022;62(3):414–23. Available from:
Liu I, Rabin B, Manivannan M, Laney E, Philipsborn R. Evaluating strengths and opportunities for a co-created climate change curriculum: Medical student perspectives. Front Public Health. 2022;10:1021125.
Google Scholar
Lee SA, Bates OB, Perez EC, Swift CP, Stanistreet D. INTEGRATING PLANETARY HEALTH INTO THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM. Policy and Practice. 2022;2022(34). Available from:
Buckland P, Goodstein E, Alexander R, Muchnick B, Mallia ME, Leary N, et al. The challenge of coordinated civic climate change education. J Environ Stud Sci. 2018;8(2):169–78. Available from:
Philipsborn RP, Sheffield P, White A, Osta A, Anderson MS, Bernstein A. Climate change and the practice of medicine: essentials for resident education. Acad Med. 2021;96(3):355–67.
Google Scholar
Duram LA. Teaching a social science course on climate change : Suggestions for active learning. Bull Am Meteorol Soc. 2021;102(8):E1494–8. Available from:
Rosenau N, Neumann U, Hamblett S, Ellrott T. University students as change agents for health and sustainability: a pilot study on the effects of a teaching kitchen-based planetary health diet curriculum. Nutrients. 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16040521.
Google Scholar
Marsden O, Clery P, S DS, Leedham-Green K. Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI): challenges and strategies for translating undergraduate learning into clinical practice. BMC Med Educ. 2021;21(1):555.
Google Scholar
Versini PA, Al Sayah M, Bordignon F, Schertzer D. How the concept of nature-based solutions for climate adaptation could be introduced in Master’s curricula. Insights from France. J Clean Prod. 2023;395. Available from:
Sanyang E, Butler-Dawson J, Mikulski MA, Cook T, Kuye RA, Venzke K, et al. Environmental and occupational health needs assessment in West Africa: opportunities for research and training. Int J Public Health. 2017;62(2):317–25.
Google Scholar
Ezezika O, Jarrah M. A Case Study on the Impact of a Web-Based Animated Storyline Module for Global Health Pedagogy: Student Perspectives. Journal of Education. 2022;202(1):26–33. Available from:
Field J, Martin N, Duane B, Vital S, Mulligan S, Livny A, et al. Embedding environmental sustainability within oral health professional curricula-recommendations for teaching and assessment of learning outcomes. Eur J Dent Educ. 2023;27(3):650–61.
Google Scholar
Richardson J, Grose J, Bradbury M, Kelsey J. Developing awareness of sustainability in nursing and midwifery using a scenario-based approach: Evidence from a pre and post educational intervention study. Nurse Educ Today. 2017;54:51–5.
Google Scholar
Wróblewska D, Okraszewska R. Project-based learning as a method for interdisciplinary adaptation to climate change-Reda Valley case study. Sustainability (Switzerland). 2020;12(11). Available from:
Schmeltz MT, Ganesh C. Improving the capacity and diversity of local public health workforce to address climate impacts to health through community partnerships and problem-based learning. Front Public Health. 2022;10:1090129.
Google Scholar
Martindale L, Cannone C, Niet T, Hodgkins R, Alexander K, Howells M. Empowering Tomorrow’s Problem Solvers: Nexus Thinking and CLEWs Modelling as a Pedagogical Approach to Wicked Problems. Energies (Basel). 2023;16(14). Available from:
Dambre C, G SDJ, Orhan R, Montag D, van der I Z, Gallo V. Working toward a transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning planetary health-A collective reflection. Front Public Health. 2022;10:1039736.
Google Scholar
Creutzig F, Kapmeier F. Engage, don’t preach: active learning triggers climate action. Energy Res Soc Sci. 2020;70:101779.
Google Scholar
Slimings C, Sisson E, Larson C, Bowles D, Hussain R. Adaptive doctors in Australia: preparing tomorrow’s doctors for practice in a world destabilised by declining planetary health. Environ Educ Res. 2022;28(5):786–801. Available from:
Acosta D, Stark H, Hack G. The importance of incorporating systems thinking and One Health in global health classrooms: findings from a One Health simulation activity. Front Public Health. 2024;12:1299116.
Google Scholar
Telesford L, Nsobundu C, Lewis T, Marks A, Alamrany A, Zaim O, et al. Leveraging small island context to advance and disseminate environmental health and sustainable development knowledge through higher education. Front Educ (Lausanne). 2024;9. Available from:
McNabb SJN, Magowe M, Shaw N, Berrian AM, Wilkes M, Shaikh A, et al. Delivering modern global health learning requires new obligations and approaches. Ann Glob Health. 2021;87(1):68.
Google Scholar
UNESCO. Director-General 2009–2017 (Bokova, I.G.). UNESCO 2015. 2015. Available from:
Bianchi G, Pisiotis U, Cabrera Giraldez M. GreenComp – The European sustainability competence framework. Bacigalupo, M., Punie, Y. (editors), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2022; ISBN 978–92–76–46485–3
Corres A, Ruiz-Mallen I. Digital technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic: opportunities and challenges for environmental educators in Barcelona. J Environ Educ. 2023;54(1):8–19.
Google Scholar
link
