The necessity of community-oriented and future-oriented revision in the educational content of the field of environmental health from the point of view of the beneficiaries (graduates and students)

Background and Objective: The trend of developments in the health system and medical education and other related sciences, including environmental health, is a global challenge. In this research educational content of environmental health and its revision were studied from the point of view of students and graduates. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. In this research, through two checklists, the opinions of environmental health students and graduates regarding the necessity of revising the educational content of the field according to the requirements of the time and considering the future situation were investigated with the participation of 441 people. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-22 software. Results: According to the results, 73.7 percent of participants believed that the educational content of environmental health in Iran has fundamental differences from developed countries. 81.7 percent believed that the educational content provided to environmental health students is not proportional to their duties. Meantime, 91.4 percent of the graduates of environmental health believe that the expected capabilities included in the educational curricula of different degrees of environmental health should be revised. 88.4 percent believed that it is necessary to revise the educational content of this field considering the "change in executive and practical functions of environmental health during the past years". Conclusion: The overwhelming majority of graduates of the field emphasized the need to revise the educational content of the environmental health field, taking into account the requirements of the time. It is necessary to redefine the field of environmental health in the country according to the changing situation and the emergence of new indicators.