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Learning is good, but not enough: Comment on the article “Child-focused climate change and health content in medical schools and residencies.” Goshua A, Gomez J, Erny B, Gisondi M, Patel L, Sampath V, Sheffield P, Nadeau K

Pediatric Research volume 98, pages 1203–1204 (2025)Cite this article

This cited report examines progress in the education of those who care for children and helps inform child-protective policy directions. Climate threats may seem tangential to physicians in busy clinical practice, but over the coming years, climate extremes will be central in the lives of our patients.

In pediatrics, a future focus, “anticipatory guidance,” is an essential part of a clinical visit—counseling parents on behaviors that are developmental, sometimes suggesting that their child will “grow out of it,” and offering suggestions for coping and diverting difficult behaviors. Yet, for environmental health threats, there is no growing out of them, and an anticipatory approach requires that we demand structural and policy interventions.

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  1. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Richard J. Jackson

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  1. Richard J. Jackson
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R.J.J. is the sole author of this Commentary; there are no coauthors.

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Correspondence to Richard J. Jackson.

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Jackson, R.J. Learning is good, but not enough: Comment on the article “Child-focused climate change and health content in medical schools and residencies.” Goshua A, Gomez J, Erny B, Gisondi M, Patel L, Sampath V, Sheffield P, Nadeau K. Pediatr Res 98, 1203–1204 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02680-5

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