One Health Education and Planetary Health: Assessing Knowledge Gaps in Undergraduate Nursing, Education, and Biology Students, and a Pilot Postgraduate Intervention

Authors:
Preprint
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Background: The One Health approach recognises the inextricable interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health and constitutes a critical framework for global public health management. Despite growing institutional support, its integration into university curricula remains limited and inconsistent, particularly outside veterinary and medical programmes, creating a formative gap that affects disciplines highly relevant to the One Health ecosystem, such as Nursing, Biology, and Education. Objectives: This study analyses the level of One Health education among undergraduate students in Education, Nursing, and Biology, and evaluates the impact of a training intervention on Master's students in Secondary Education Teacher Training (Biology specialisation). Methods: A two-phase sequential design was adopted. Phase 1 employed a descriptive and inferential cross-sectional approach using a standardised questionnaire administered to 80 undergraduates (Education n = 22; Nursing n = 45; Biology n = 13). Descriptive statistics (means and frequency distributions) and the Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test were applied. Phase 2 consisted of a pilot pre-experimental single-group intervention applied to 18 Master's students following a 90-minute structured training session on One Health literacy. Results: Phase 1 revealed a complete absence of conceptual knowledge of One Health across all three degree programmes (0% awareness; 0% correct definition), with no statistically significant between-group differences for any of the four curricular perception variables analysed. Phase 2 demonstrated that, following the intervention, 100% of participants were aware of the term and 94.4% could define it correctly, alongside markedly more positive and interdisciplinary perceptions regarding its curricular inclusion. Conclusions: A significant formative gap exists regarding the One Health approach in undergraduate university education, independent of academic discipline. Targeted educational interventions are essential to achieve adequate One Health education. These findings underscore the need for interdisciplinary integration of One Health across diverse university programmes as a global public good.

This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit: