When Lucinda Woodward embarked on her dream trip to Antarctica in early 2023, she had little idea that her journey would spark a significant career transformation. As an accident and emergency nurse, her experiences in the icy continent brought an unexpected change of direction.
“I really didn’t know much about climate change until I went to Antarctica and learned about how global warming was affecting penguin breeding patterns,” Woodward explains. “That’s where my interest started and I wanted to learn more.”
In Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts the strongest El Niño on record, highlighting the increased health challenges posed by climate change. For healthcare professionals like Woodward, these impacts are becoming increasingly apparent.
According to Prof Kathryn Bowen, director of Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne, the consequences of climate change are vast. “With every extreme heat event, we see an increase in the number of people admitted to hospital, the number of callouts for ambulances, and all of these obviously have an impact on the healthcare system,” she notes.
The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reported that global heat-related deaths rose to an estimated average of 546,000 per year between 2012 and 2021, marking a 63% increase from the 1990s average.
Bowen emphasizes that the immediate impacts of extreme weather events are merely a surface-level issue. “Climate change really acts as an amplifier of existing health threats,” she says. “There are clear impacts around access to food and water, then there are other, less obvious pathways we are only now beginning to understand. If a farming community loses their livestock or their crops because of an extreme weather event, for example, then this can also flow into mental health impacts as a result of the collapse of their livelihood.”
In response to these challenges, the University of Melbourne offers a graduate certificate in climate change and health. This program prepares professionals from various sectors to tackle complex health challenges by equipping them with practical skills in risk assessment and strategy development.
For Woodward, this course represented an opportunity to blend her newfound interest in climate change with her established career in emergency nursing. “The idea that I could combine my newfound passion for addressing climate change with my already well-established career as an emergency nurse was really exciting,” she shares.
Turning research into real-world action
Understanding the intersections between climate and health requires a comprehensive approach. Bowen stresses the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, stating, “We know that the impacts of climate change are multidimensional and they require the health sector to work with other sectors, whether that be agriculture, water, energy or finance. It’s critical that we start with an interdisciplinary understanding of the health implications.”
The course at the University of Melbourne uses contemporary research and case studies to help professionals implement practical actions in health services and community programs. Students have access to tools like the World Health Organization’s climate and health vulnerability assessment, which facilitates a strategic approach to adapting health systems for future climate scenarios.
“The tool allows us to set out the baseline health conditions for a given context and then model how climate change will impact that over different timeframes,” Bowen explains. “So we can look at how the health system will need to adapt in response. Our focus is very much on applied research and teaching policy-relevant skills using methods and tools that are currently being used globally.”
After completing her studies, Woodward has integrated her nursing background with her environmental health knowledge. She now serves as an environmental health officer at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation in Victoria, where she plays a role in educating nurses about climate change and advocating for environmental issues.
“Environmental health is the missing piece when we care for a patient,” Woodward says. “You won’t find it listed in medical or social history, and we don’t learn about it when we’re taught about the social determinants of health in nursing school. It is out of sight and out of mind for most nurses and midwives, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.”
Building a climate-ready health workforce
The program also addresses mitigation strategies, focusing on how the healthcare industry can reduce its carbon footprint. Bowen highlights the importance of this approach, emphasizing the need for the sector to both adapt to climate consequences and minimize its own emissions.
Australia’s health system accounted for an estimated 5.44% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021-22. Woodward found such statistics to be a powerful motivator, stating, “As clinicians this is at odds with our ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, and that is a hard pill to swallow. It can be incredibly overwhelming, thinking about how to tackle such a huge issue, especially if you are just one person. I know of nurses who started recycling on their ward and then went on to put sustainability into the boardroom. My journey was different; I went straight to university because I had a thirst for knowledge.”
While the health impacts of climate change can seem extensive, Woodward’s academic and career journey has demonstrated that the strategies to address these challenges are equally comprehensive.
Explore how postgraduate study at the University of Melbourne can advance your health career.
Original Story at www.theguardian.com