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The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) 2024: Inspiring change in healthcare education
What is the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC)?
The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) is an international student organisation, advocating for the integration of planetary health education within health professional schools worldwide.
Through its assessments and collaborations, the PHRC aims to catalyse positive change, increasing awareness of planetary health and accountability in medical schools.
At the heart of the PHRC’s work are its annual metric-based reports, put together by student teams in participating institutions. These reports are comprehensive evaluations of each institution’s approach to planetary health, divided into five sections:
- Curriculum
- Interdisciplinary research
- Community outreach
- Support for student-led initiatives
- Campus sustainability.
By evaluating these key areas, the PHRC identifies areas of strength and highlights opportunities for improvement. This process fosters a culture of continuous improvement, driving institutions towards excellence in planetary health education.
Impact of the PHRC in numbers
The impact of the PHRC reaches far and wide, with 151 schools across 18 countries and 7 disciplines participating this year. What’s more inspiring is the tangible progress observed – 78% of schools that completed a previous report showcased improvement.
Some of the student teams shared how the PHRC inspired changes at their institutions:
“We developed a class on climate justice that was guided by the components of the PHRC, raising our Curriculum score to a B this year!” – Rush Medical College
“We have continued to update our new Planetary Health Curriculum to incorporate student feedback and cover topics in more depth. In the past year, two new lectures have been delivered for the first time. We have also successfully implemented a small-scale composting programme at the Spokane Health Sciences campus.” – Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
How does CSH facilitate the integration of planetary health education?
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) is highlighted on the PHRC resource page as an excellent education and resource provider that specialises in the integration of sustainable healthcare into teaching and practice. Our Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) website is also praised for being “extremely comprehensive” and “an invaluable open access learning resource” where you can find project resources, educator packs, and case studies.
To assist medical schools in enhancing their performance, CSH also provides the following resources:
- Teaching Sustainability in Quality Improvement. This is a concise programme aiding educators in embedding sustainability principles into quality improvement education backed by Health Education England, Kings College London, and the Health Foundation
- Sustainability in QI (SusQI) Academy. Join our network of SusQI leads and educators, access our training courses, and receive a bespoke package of support to:
– Integrate sustainability into your curricula
– Develop teaching resources
– Develop the confidence of your staff to teach and use sustainability principles in their work
– Gain personal and team development to support students to design and measure the sustainability impact of QI
– Achieve Beacon Site status for your organisation.
How to get involved?
If you’d like to get involved in the PHRC please email phreportcard@gmail.com or contact the team via the PHRC website.
Their 2024 summary report was published on the 22nd of April 2024 on their website, pherportcard.org.
CSH would like to thank the PHRC team for their contribution to writing this post.