Transitioning to sustainable, climate-resilient healthcare: insights from a health service staff survey in Australia.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101088677 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1472-6963 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14726963 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Health Serv Res Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

Delivery of Health Care* ; Health Services*; Humans ; Australia ; Queensland ; Hospitals, Public

Background: More than 80 countries, including Australia, have made commitments to deliver climate-resilient and low carbon healthcare. Understanding how healthcare workers view their own and their organization's efforts to achieve sustainable and climate-resilient healthcare practice is vital to inform strategies to accelerate that transition.
Methods: We conducted an online staff survey in a large state government hospital-and-health-service organisation in Queensland, Australia, to ascertain attitudes and practices towards environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient healthcare, and views about the organizational support necessary to achieve these goals in their workplace.
Results: From 301 participants showed staff strongly support implementing sustainable and climate-resilient healthcare but require significantly more organizational support. Participants identified three categories of organizational support as necessary for the transition to environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient health services and systems: (1) practical support to make sustainability easier in the workplace (e.g. waste, energy, water, procurement, food, transport etc.); (2) training and education to equip them for 21st century planetary health challenges; and (3) embedding sustainability as 'business as usual' in healthcare culture and systems.
Conclusions: The research provides new insight into health workforce views on how organizations should support them to realize climate and sustainability goals. This research has implications for those planning, managing, implementing, and educating for, the transition to environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient health services and systems in Queensland, Australia, and in similar health systems internationally.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)

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Keywords: Climate change; Climate-resilient healthcare; Environmentally sustainable healthcare; Health professions education and training; Health system transition; Healthcare culture; Survey; Workforce

Date Created: 20240416 Date Completed: 20240418 Latest Revision: 20240425

20260130

PMC11022411

10.1186/s12913-024-10882-8

38627700