Background: The transition towards a sustainable society is urgently needed, and needs to be implemented in all sectors of society. The Swedish Higher Education Act states that sustainable development (SD) should be promoted in the activities of the Swedish universities. However, a national investigation has found that the majority of institutions for higher education in Sweden have difficulties to fulfil the criteria for SD. We here describe our ongoing work to integrate SD in the curriculum of the physiotherapy masters program at Dalarna University.
Methods: The physiotherapy masters program has made efforts to include all three dimensions of SD in the curriculum. We have analyzed the connections between SD and physiotherapy and, based on this analysis, attempted to approach issues of conventional physiotherapy from the perspective of SD.
Results: SD is now included in the curriculum of three courses in the program. The first course provides an introduction to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, this by having students choose two goals and relate those to their chosen subject in an essay assignment with focus on clinical pain. The second course concerns physical activity and exercise, also including a wider societal perspective. Through lectures, literature and a seminar, issues relating to lifestyle changes, public health promotion, and the role of physiotherapy for SD within these areas are discussed. The third course contains an assignment in project planning, were students are asked to argue for the relations between the research project and SD. Results from student evaluations are yet to be analysed.
Discussion: Great effort has been put in to the implementation of SD in the curriculum resulting in specific learning objectives and assignments. After three years, SD is included in in three out of four courses. We have yet to evaluate in which ways SD is best implemented in the curricular activities.
Conclusion: It is possible to include social-, economic, and ecological sustainability in physiotherapy education. In which ways SD is best implemented in the curricular activities is yet to be evaluated.
2020.