The need to train physicians in transition and sustainable development is no longer debated. The Catholic University of Louvain has committed itself to this path with its transition plan. Within the Department of General Medicine, this topic has also been deemed essential to integrate into the curriculum. But what specific concepts should be included and how? What skills should general practitioners gain? To address these questions, a focus group of experts from various disciplines was convened in December 2021. They emphasized the importance of training all general practitioners in transition and environmental health because of the close link between the environment and health, and the exemplary role they can play in the population and their own responsibility in terms of environmental impact. The topics, skills, and values involved in such training are manifold. Based on the challenges of training in transition and sustainable development, this article explores the development of socio-environmental responsibility among general practitioners, pedagogical approaches, and the receptivity to other scientific knowledge to address complex problems.
Keywords
Transition, sustainable development, general medicine
What is already known about the topic?
Medical curricula must integrate the challenges of transition and sustainable development.
What does this article bring up for us?
The article raises the stakes of this training: what, how and why?