Global View of Academic Managers, Students and Teachers of a Medicine Course in the Southeast of Brazil on Sustainability and its Relationships with Health

Abstract: Introduction: In the face of changes in the socio-environmental, cultural, and technological spheres, the proposal of this study was to assess the knowledge of academic managers, teachers and students of an undergraduate Medicine course in the southeast of Brazil in relation to sustainability and its implications in the area of health. Methods: A case study was carried out combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques. The study included analysis of the course curriculum and lesson plans, interviews with academic managers and teachers, and a questionnaire for the students. The study categories were: concept of sustainability, importance for health, relationships between sustainability and health, and sustainability in the curriculum. Results: The participants are nearing an approach of weak sustainability, with the students showing the most reductionist perspective; whereby the relationship between sustainability and health are established through illnesses and/or quality of life, and the curriculum has limited inclusion of the perspective of sustainability. Conclusion: All the participants consider it important to include sustainability in health areas to improve the training of professionals and are willing to participate in activities for their own training and development of the approach. This suggestion points to a future curriculum assimilation project for sustainability at the institutional level, in which special attention should be paid to teacher training in relation to the development of the approach in their own classes.