Two final year medical students in Oxford took part in a two-week special study module (SSM) on “Sustainable Healthcare” in 2011-12. The students each chose to focus on one of the four dimensions of sustainable healthcare identified by the Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE) Network, and undertook a related project.
One student chose the “Management” theme. She attended an NHS Sustainable Development conference, with focus on Trust and Estates management. She collaborated with an anaesthetist and an operating department practitioner at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, who had been responsible for introducing recycling into the operating theatres, to plan and carry out a theatre waste audit and write up a case study, published online at http://map.greenerhealthcare.org/oxford-radcliffe-hospitals-nhs-trust/introducing-recycling-operating-theatres. In order to support further change in staff recycling behaviours, she (and students from another SSM) created a poster to inform staff about the initiative and feed back the impacts to date.
The second student chose the “Clinical Practice” theme. She carried out a literature review on evidence for walking interventions in hypertension and wrote an article to communicate this topic in a clinical framework for a student/GP audience (currently under revision). In addition, she attended Green Week lectures on climate change and health at the Whittington Hospital and interviewed participants in their Green Ward competition for a blog article, which was posted in the SHE Network at http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/sustainable-healthcare-education/blog/2012/03/medical-student-reports-whittington-hospital-green-wee
You can access the full case study at http://www.sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/sustainable-healthcare-educatio…
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