MD ID 6004 - Sustainability, Medicine, & Health

The Rural & Underserved Utah Training Experience (RUUTE) program is excited for medical students to become more aware of the relationship between healthcare and the environment and how it impacts the various communities throughout Utah. The “Sustainability, Medicine, & Health” course will help to illuminate the complexity and diversity of the environment in Utah, and the challenges and opportunities present in its connection to health and medicine. The course is also designed to inspire future physicians to seek opportunities to improve their environment and align it with their medical career and goals. The course will also help students: identify strengths, deficiencies, and limits in one's knowledge and expertise as it pertains to the care of populations most impacted by climate change; set learning and improvement goals; and identify and perform learning activities that address one's gaps in knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes. The medical students who participate in this elective will gain specific insight into healthcare differences within underserved areas and patient populations. Students will gain insight into the realities that many people within these communities face on a daily basis and will also gain an appreciation for what they have and witness the substantial schism between underserved areas compared to areas with more resources. Upon completion of the elective, students will have developed a broad understanding of the relationship between sustainability and medicine, its health-related issues, challenges, and determinants, and the culture of these communities. By participating in this elective, medical students will examine their own beliefs about climate change, medicine, and patients that come from a background different from their own and what they are familiar with; including implicit bias. They will become more culturally sensitive to the socioeconomic determinants of health present within the diverse populations that live in Utah and become better future physicians with this new knowledge and insight.