A Longitudinal Pediatric Residency Climate Justice Curriculum

<b>Background</b> Graduate medical education programs must prepare physicians to adapt their care for patients whose health equity and outcomes are being threatened by climate change. This article presents the implementation of a longitudinal climate justice curriculum within a pediatrics residency program. <b>Objective</b> To measure the self-reported changes in attitudes and intentions for change in behavior after implementation of a climate justice curriculum. <b>Methods</b> A longitudinal, 4-part, climate justice and health equity (CJHE) curriculum was implemented from 2023 to 2024 into the broader advocacy training of a pediatrics residency program. Resident participants completed pre- and post-session surveys that assessed their attitudes toward climate change and health, as well as their intentions to engage in climate advocacy. Paired deidentified responses were analyzed via Wilcoxon signed-rank test. <b>Results</b> Thus far, facilitators have conducted 4 introduction sessions, 4 narrative medicine sessions, and 3 health system sustainability sessions. Sixty-eight of 100 residents (68%) completed both pre- and post-session surveys. The curriculum was associated with increased self-reported understanding of how climate change impacts human health (CJHE 1: median of pairwise averages of pair-differences [MPA]=1.00, <i>P</i><.001; CJHE 3-4: MPA=1.00, <i>P</i><.001), increased agreement that health care providers can be effective climate advocates (CJHE 1: MPA=2.00, <i>P</i><.001; CJHE 3-4: MPA=1.50, <i>P</i><.001), and increased intention to discuss the health impacts of climate change in future patient encounters (CJHE 1: MPA=1.00, <i>P</i><.001; CJHE 3-4: MPA=1.00, <i>P</i><.001). <b>Conclusions</b> This longitudinal CJHE curriculum demonstrated acceptability and increased participants' self-reported understanding of how climate change impacts human health and the ways in which physicians can act as advocates.