EU Prioritises Green Skills for Healthcare Workers
The European Union (EU) has identified training healthcare personnel in green skills as a strategic priority. This topic was recently discussed in a webinar hosted by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
Green skills encompass the knowledge, skills, and values that enable individuals to implement sustainable practices and promote environmental sustainability. This issue is becoming increasingly significant in the healthcare industry. The webinar focused on the BeWell project, which began in 2022 and aims to develop green and digital skills for a sustainable future in the health ecosystem by incorporating local, regional, national, and European initiatives.
Climate Challenge
Andrea Schmidt, PhD, Head of Department, Climate and Health, Austrian National Public Health Institute, Vienna, Austria, emphasised that climate change poses the greatest challenge to health systems in the 21st century, with record heat, an increasing number of extreme weather events, and a rising risk for allergies and infectious diseases.
'Health systems contribute approximately 5% of greenhouse gas emissions, necessitating two actions: First, improving health to reduce healthcare demand and increase resilience (including health promotion); and second, reducing carbon emissions from health activities,' she added. Therefore, she recommended integrating sustainability into quality improvement strategies.
In her view, healthcare workers play a crucial role in building climate-resilient, low-emission health systems. 'They are agents of transformation during these times of multiple crises and are recognised figures in society, with direct access to vulnerable groups. However, there is a gap in education, training, curriculum, and continuous professional development, both in the EU and globally,' she warned.
Three Levels
According to Schmidt, key capabilities must be deployed at the macro, meso, and micro levels. At the macro level, sufficient healthcare workers must be trained and educated, supported by policies that promote climate resilience and health. At the meso level, green teams should be established and trained within institutions to drive innovation and share best practices. Finally, at the micro level, information, awareness, and communication should be promoted, conveying climate-related risks to decision-makers, the media, and community leaders to ensure that they reach the public. She stressed that 'collaboration across sectors is essential.'
Among the various frameworks for developing skills and competencies in this area, she highlighted BeWell, a competency matrix that focuses on mitigation strategies. Other useful tools include the Planetary Health Report Card initiative, the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, and the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region.
Finally, she identified several barriers, including a lack of healthcare professionals and resources and the low quality of jobs, which increased pressure on health systems. There is also a shortage of trainers with the necessary knowledge to educate healthcare staff on these aspects. Other challenges include a lack of long-term vision due to current pressures and insufficient evidence, knowledge, and awareness to support the implementation of environmentally beneficial practices.
Federica Margheri, executive director at the European Health Management Association, noted a lack of knowledge and awareness in training in green skills, suggesting that all efforts should focus on these areas. Ronald Batenburg, PhD, professor in health workforce and organisation studies at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and program leader at the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, highlighted the absence of indicators as another key issue. He also stressed the importance of training healthcare workers who are just beginning their careers in health systems, insisting on the need to compare results as a means of improvement and to raise awareness.
European Support
Petronille Bogaert, policy officer in the Health Security Unit in DG SANTE at the European Commission, reiterated the importance of green skills for adapting systems to the challenges posed by climate change. 'This is not merely a technical update; it is a strategic decision, he said. Green care models are promising, and we will continue to support them. It is essential to do so in the health sector and collaboratively across different sectors,' she said.
During the subsequent debate, questions regarding the funding and evaluation of these initiatives arose. Schmidt advocated for climate resilience, focusing on high-value care and discarding low-value care that affects the carbon footprint. Therefore, existing strategies linked to green skills must be implemented. She concluded that there is 'much to learn' from countries outside the European context.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
2 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Colonoscopy Prep Is Not as Bad as You Think
In his op-ed 'Colonoscopy Prep Is Worse Than IKEA' (June 3), Jim Sollisch gives readers the impression that there has been a universal shift to a three-day bowel preparation for colonoscopies. This isn't the case. There are a variety of bowel-prep options, each of which comes with specific steps for patients to follow to ensure the colon is fully cleansed before the procedure. A patient navigation system can allow patients to have their questions answered, which may help optimize adherence. Gastroenterologists recommend a bowel prep alongside diet adjustments that might work best. This is often limited to dietary changes the day before the colonoscopy based on the newest recommendations by the U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer to optimize bowel preparations.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
How will the measles outbreak in Alberta affect kids?
With the measles count inching closer to the 1,000 mark in Alberta, this could mean dire consequences for the province's youngest and most vulnerable. As of Friday, the province has recorded 778 cases of the measles in Alberta, with 364 diagnosed within kids and teenagers aged five to 17 years. Over 200 cases have been diagnosed in children younger than five years old, a demographic Dr. Daniel Gregson, an infectious disease specialist says is especially vulnerable to developing serious complications from the virus. 'Measles complication rates are higher the younger you are and so, under five, you have a much higher incidence of complications which require hospitalizations,' he said. 'Common ones are pneumonia, unremitting diarrhea and then there are some rare complications like encephalitis that can result in admissions as well.' As of the time this article was published, five people are hospitalized, two of whom are in the ICU. For weeks, doctors, experts and government officials have encouraged Albertans to get vaccinated against the measles, attributing the rise in cases to poor vaccination rates over the last two decades. The reason the infection is spreading fastest among kids and teenagers is because of the low immunization rates in that demographic, according to Gregson. 'And transmission also happens when people who are not immunized gather together in large numbers and that's generally in schools.' With school almost out for the summer, that may mitigate the exponential rise in cases but with the count inching closer to 1,000, that increases the possibility of fatalities. But it's a difficult infection to control, Gregson cautioned, because it can be transmitted airborne and can stay in the air for approximately two hours after being released. 'So you can imagine, someone going to a store to pick up something,' he said. 'There could have been somebody in there who had been incubating in that four-day window and breathing in the store and then the store becomes a source of infection for other people, even when that person is no longer there.' Most adults who get the measles would see experience cold-like symptoms and a rash. But the complications arise for children who could also experience ear infections, pneumonia, dehydration and in rare cases encephalitis and blindness. On average, one patient in every 1,000 affected could die from the disease, although it's difficult to predict how that may pattern. 'We may see no deaths for the first thousand and then see three deaths in the second thousand,' he hypothesized. Should cases rise into the quadruples, kids younger than five years are most vulnerable to fatalities, he said. Ontario recorded its first death of the year from the measles outbreak in the province, after an infant born prematurely died from contracting the virus before birth. It is possible for pregnant mothers to pick up the infection and transmit to their babies pre-birth, Gregson said. 'It could be quite devastating.' A pregnant mother infected with the disease could see increased risk of a premature birth, a miscarriage, a stillborn birth or a low baby weight. The infection if passed on, could mean congenital measles for the fetus and respiratory complications post-birth.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Midwife struck off after claiming vaccines ‘attacked babies' on social media
A midwife has been struck off the register after posting claims on social media that vaccinations attacked babies while in their mother's womb during pregnancy. Seana Mary Kerr, of Newry, Northern Ireland, also told a pregnant woman in a shop that she should not be wearing a face mask during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) tribunal panel judgment. Ms Kerr, who had been a registered midwife since 2007, was found by a panel to have placed the woman at 'significant risk of harm' with her views, while she had 'risked seriously undermining the public confidence' in her profession at a crucial time with her posts. In the first of three social media posts in September 2020, Ms Kerr said that babies were being attacked in the womb through vaccination of mothers during pregnancy. Then, in March 2021, she claimed healthcare professionals were being 'complicit' in the national response to Covid-19, and that the health crisis was 'a Trojan horse intend[ed] to introduce a new era for humanity'. A further post in December that year made reference to how a group of people, described as 'they', had been 'planting the seeds' about Covid-19 over Christmas 2020 by referring to 'some bat in China'. Ms Kerr's advice and social media comments were given when she had identified herself as a midwife and was 'promoting her opinion on matters of clinical importance', the panel found. 'The panel considered that the actions of Ms Kerr took place during an exceptionally unusual time, where the entirety of the NHS was mobilised to protect the public from the international Covid-19 pandemic,' they said. 'Therefore, by expressing the view that other healthcare professionals, who Ms Kerr was working with in the Trust, were acting in ways which may cause harm, a view Ms Kerr held which was against the recognised guidance at the time, Ms Kerr risked seriously undermining the public confidence in the profession. 'It further noted that by making these accusations that Ms Kerr's colleagues may have suffered harm while working in an unprecedented and challenging situation.' The midwife approached the pregnant woman in the shop, which was her place of work, during the other allegation in question in August 2020. She identified herself as a midwife before advising the woman that she should not be wearing the face mask as it reduced the amount of oxygen her baby was receiving. Ms Kerr went on to tell the woman that she should not receive a flu vaccination as this would increase the risk of her baby being stillborn. The panel found the pregnant woman and her family were caused 'significant emotional harm' as a result of Ms Kerr's behaviour. 'The panel noted that it is a reasonable expectation of everyone working in a public environment, such as a shop, that they will not be approached and given personal, clinical advice and that such advice would normally only be given during a private clinical appointment or at an antenatal class,' they said. 'Therefore, by approaching Patient A in her place of work, outside a clinical relationship, unsolicited, Ms Kerr placed her at significant risk of harm.' The panel found Ms Kerr's fitness to practise was still impaired and that there was a risk of the individual repeating her behaviour. Ms Kerr did not show any remorse for her misconduct or demonstrate any insight into her previous actions, and had not engaged with the NMC since June 2022, the panel said. It made an order to strike Ms Kerr's name from the register, after a 12-month suspension order had previously been imposed last year.
