Evaluation of Planetary Health and Sustainable Healthcare Online Course for Undergraduate Medical Students: A...

Introducing medical students to sustainable healthcare and planetary health concepts is essential to preparing future physicians for the growing environmental challenges that impact human health. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an online elective course on sustainable healthcare and planetary medicine, designed to align with established sustainable healthcare priority learning outcomes.

This study used a one-group pretest-posttest design to evaluate an online course on planetary health and sustainable healthcare for third-year medical students at Alexandria University. The community of inquiry (CoI) framework guided course development. A non-probability sample of 206 students was recruited. Due to the short-term nature of this study, evaluation focused on the first two levels of Kirkpatrick's model: level 1 (reaction) used a satisfaction survey to measure engagement and effectiveness, and level 2 (learning) used a 20-item pretest-posttest exam to assess knowledge acquisition. The pretest also captured students' perceptions of their prior knowledge and attitudes toward incorporating planetary health into medical education.

Before the course, only 29.1% of students perceived they had sufficient knowledge of sustainability in healthcare, while 93.2% expressed a need for more education in this area. At the end of the course, all students passed the 20-item posttest, with a statistically significant improvement in posttest scores compared to pretest scores (p < 0.05). Students reported the highest satisfaction with clarity of grading criteria, achievement of learning outcomes, instructor communication, response time for feedback, and overall course quality.

The findings align with outcomes reported in comparable courses, demonstrating consistent improvements in student knowledge and engagement in planetary health and sustainable healthcare education.

The online elective course on planetary health and sustainable healthcare significantly enhanced students' knowledge and was well received, as evidenced by high satisfaction ratings. However, areas for enhancement include improving multimedia content, expanding course topics, and providing additional supplemental materials.

Not applicable.