Co-designing planetary health curriculum for health professions education: empowering students and increasing educator capacity
What is planetary health?
Planetary Health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and global movement that examines the links between human health and the state of Earth’s natural systems (Whitmee et al., 2015). It responds to growing evidence that climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and unsustainable food systems pose major and interrelated risks to population health and health equity. Planetary Health emphasises systems thinking, prevention, and transformative action to protect both human and ecological wellbeing (Planetary Health Alliance).
Why is planetary health a priority?
Planetary Health is an urgent priority for higher education, particularly in health professions training, due to accelerating environmental crises that pose profound and interconnected risks to human health, health systems and health equity (Whitmee et al., 2015; Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, 2024).
For students, the absence of Planetary Health education risks leaving graduates underprepared to respond to these realities, while contributing to growing eco-anxiety and disengagement. For institutions, promoting Planetary Health aligns with civic responsibility, sustainability commitments and emerging accreditation expectations.
What was the purpose of this fellowship?
The overarching purpose of this fellowship was to embed Planetary Health education across health professions curricula, building the capacity of educators and empowering students to respond effectively to complex environmental and health challenges.
Specific goals for the 18-month fellowship project included:
- Increasing educator confidence and capability to teach Planetary Health concepts;
- Co-designing fit-for-purpose teaching and learning activities with students that align with evidence-based Planetary Health Education frameworks;
- Enhancing student systems thinking, futures literacy, and professional agency; and
- Creating scalable, adaptable resources that can be integrated across disciplines to prepare future health professionals to address planetary health challenges.
What were the fellowship outcomes?
The fellowship successfully advanced Planetary Health education across Monash University’s Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS). Using a co-design approach, 69 PHE Champions (including 48 students across 12 disciplines) collaborated to reformulate existing teaching materials and create new workshops, lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, and assessments aligned with best-practice Planetary Health Education frameworks (Guzmán et al., 2021). Together, they developed, piloted and refined a suite of learning and teaching materials. To facilitate and inspire widespread use, these materials are now actively promoted for use by all faculty educators.
The partnerships between students, their educators, across disciplines and with external partners have enhanced planetary health education at Monash and beyond. With nine student-authored publications, eleven conference presentations including three international, and contribution to the global Planetary Health Roadmap, this project demonstrates the power of partnerships to enhance learning and contribute to addressing complex global challenges. Recognition of impact was reflected in the 2025 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning, highlighting the project’s contribution to innovative and scalable education in Planetary Health.
What resources were developed?
- Project Outcomes - an overview of the 12 disciplines' learning and teaching materials and evidence of their effectiveness during the pilot phase
- Research Translation - a growing list of peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations (domestic and international) and a recording of our internal Faculty-level showcase event
- Discipline-specific pages - each of the twelve disciplines has a dedicated page, listing all Champion Educator and Student names with photos of them in action during the co-design and piloting phases
How does the work from this fellowship inform future practice?
Ongoing research will focus on the longer-term impacts of this fellowship project;
- Have educators continued to work in partnership with students to co-design additional planetary health curricula?
- Are educators utilising the suite of resources to embed more planetary health education in their existing practice?
- Are students involved in developing or participating in the planetary health curricula more equipped to promote planetary health as they enter the workforce and navigate their early careers?
References
Whitmee, S., Haines, A., Beyrer, C., Boltz, F., Capon, A. G., Dias, B. F. S., Ezeh, A., Frumkin, H., Gong, P., Head, P., Horton, R., Mace, G. M., Marten, R., Myers, S. S., Nishtar, S., Osofsky, S. A., Pattanayak, S. K., Pongsiri, M. J., Romanelli, C., … Yach, D. (2015). Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: Report of the Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health. The Lancet, 386(10007), 1973–2028. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60901-1
Planetary Health Alliance. (n.d.). What is planetary health? Johns Hopkins University. https://planetaryhealthalliance.org/about/what-is-planetary-health/
Romanello, M., Di Napoli, C., Drummond, P., Green, C., Kennard, H., Lampard, P., Scamman, D., Arnell, N., Ayeb-Karlsson, S., Ford, L. B., et al. (2024). The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: Facing record-breaking threats from delayed action. The Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)0XXXX-X
Guzmán, C. A. F., Aguirre, A. A., Astle, B., Barros, E., Bayles, B., Chimbari, M., … Zylstra, M. (2021). A framework to guide planetary health education. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(5), e253–e255.