Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania has developed a certificate to assist practitioners in assessing how climate change is impacting health. The new mnemonic, O-CAREER, stands for: occupation, conditions, activities, residence, environmental conditions, education, and resources.
This certificate is an outgrowth of the curriculum developed for medical students at Cooper Rowan University. As we were developing the curriculum, we found that many practitioners are concerned about climate change as it relates to health, but they do not feel that they have the tools or the knowledge necessary to help inform the people they work with. While there are many trainings for health practitioners that share important information about climate and health, few provide skill building about communicating with people or colleagues, including the role of practitioner as advocate. O-CAREER is modeled after other mnemonics that healthcare practitioners often use such as PET-MAC to quickly assess chest pain. We created this new mnemonic to help practitioners ask the people they work with about the influences of climate change on their health.
O-CAREER has eight online, asynchronous modules which contain a slide deck and an article to read. Four of the modules have a knowledge check to assess your strengths. These checks will cover both the slide deck and the publication. There is one required assignment with two parts: 1) the development of an infographic about a topic related to climate and health; and 2) testing that infographic with its intended audience (at least 3 people/groups). To receive the certificate, the modules, knowledge checks, and assignments need to be completed in three months. A synchronous session will be held at the end of the three months to share and discuss your infographics and experience.
PSR PA will be launching this new certificate in May 2022. We look forward to sharing O-CAREER with you.