Summary: 🎉🩺📚 In this exciting article, we explore valuable insights to inspire and encourage the professional development of future medical students and physicians. From staying motivated and passionate to embracing challenges, these tips will help you excel in your healthcare career and beyond. Let's dive in!

Takeaways:

💡 Prioritize self-care: Remember to take care of your own physical and mental well-being to best serve your patients.

💡 Embrace lifelong learning: Be open to continuous improvement and stay updated with the latest advancements in medicine.

💡 Cultivate empathy: Develop a deep understanding and compassion for your patients, to provide them with the best care possible.

💡 Build a strong support network: Surround yourself with like-minded peers and mentors who can guide and motivate you along your medical journey.

💡 Embrace challenges: Be prepared to face obstacles and setbacks, as they are opportunities for personal and professional growth.

💡 Develop effective time management skills: Stay organized and prioritize tasks to ensure both quality and efficiency in your work.

💡 Practice effective communication: Master the art of clear and empathetic communication, as it is crucial in building relationships with patients and colleagues.

💡 Seek diverse experiences: Explore various healthcare settings and specialties to broaden your knowledge and skills.

💡 Embrace teamwork: Collaboration with interdisciplinary teams will enhance patient outcomes and provide a more comprehensive approach to healthcare.

💡 Remember your why: Reflect on your passion for medicine and the desire to make a positive impact on the lives of others.

So, future medical students and physicians, let these takeaways be your guiding light as you embark on a rewarding and fulfilling medical journey. Stay motivated, embrace challenges, and never stop striving for excellence in your healthcare profession! ✨👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

António Guterres: We Must Act to Reverse Climate Change

Dire Warning from the United Nations Secretary-General

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, opened the recent COP-27 with a dire warning: “We are on a highway to climate hell,” he declared, “with our foot still on the accelerator.” Two weeks of negotiations did little to hit the brakes.

Climate Change Threatens Public Health and Global Development

Climate change threatens to undo the past 50 years of progress in public health and global development. The increased frequency, timing, and severity of extreme weather events, such as floods, fires and droughts, has contributed to increased disease burden, transmission and death while also contributing to food and home insecurity and civil unrest.

The Burden on the Health-Care System

It’s clear that the effects of climate change are burdening our already exhausted health-care system and, if we continue down this “highway to climate hell,” will only do so with greater intensity: The health-care system not only experiences the consequences of climate change but is also a major contributor to the crisis.

The Contribution of the Health-Care System to Emissions

For example, greenhouse gas emissions from Canada’s health-care system account for nearly 5 per cent of the national total, putting it on par with some of the largest economic sectors, like aviation. Estimates suggest that emissions from the Canadian health-care system result in 23,000 disability-adjusted life years lost each year due to direct exposure to the hazardous pollutants as well as the environmental changes caused by pollution.

Medication as a Major Pollutant Category

A closer examination of the health-care system reveals that the largest pollutant category in health care is medication, with inhalers a prime example of how medications contribute to health-care emissions. One hundred doses of a metered-dose inhaler produce the equivalent of about 50 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2e) emissions, more than double the CO2 emissions produced by a midsize car driven for 100 km.

Our Responsibility to Act

Recognizing the health and environmental damages caused by emissions from the Canadian health-care system, it is our responsibility as health-care workers, students, patients and leaders to act and make our health-care system a more sustainable one.

It is our responsibility as health-care workers, students, patients and leaders to act and make our health-care system a more sustainable one.

Environmental Sustainability and Financial Sustainability

Importantly, an environmentally sustainable health-care system is also a more financially sustainable one. Interventions that reduce health-care system emissions such as reducing energy use and waste production or using operating room supplies more efficiently can save more than USD $5.4 billion over five years.

Immediate Actions to Take

We can start taking immediate actions by minimizing the use of hazardous materials and adequately managing waste. Practices to use products more efficiently can be implemented and environmental consciousness needs to be developed amongst hospital leaders and staff.

Influence through Buying Power

The production and transportation of health-care supplies also leaves a significant carbon footprint that hospitals can influence by using their buying power to encourage suppliers to reduce their own environmental impact.

Designing Sustainable Health-Care Facilities

Environmental sustainability must be at the forefront in the design of new health-care facilities and the renovation of existing ones. Ensuring that buildings are well insulated and making use of energy-efficient lighting, heating and ventilation systems are easy ways to minimize the health-care system’s impact on the environment.

Young Leaders Taking Action

Young leaders across the world are stepping up to take action and demand change. It’s no different in health care. Medical students across the country are working tirelessly to launch campaigns, lead organizations and issue policies that promote planetary health. The Ontario Medical Student Association, for example, has taken an unequivocal stance on the urgency of the current climate situation and the need for a more sustainable health-care system.

Hitting the Brakes

Guterres was right: We are “on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.” What will it take for us to start hitting the brakes?