ANHE

Top Ten Reasons That Nurses & Environmental Health Go Together

1.  Nurses provide healing and safe environments for people.

2.  Nurses are trusted sources of information.

3.  Nurses are the largest healthcare occupation.

4.  Nurses work with persons from a variety of cultures.

5.  Nurses effect decisions in their own homes, work settings, and communities.

6.  Nurses are good sources of information for policy makers.

7.  Nurses translate scientific health literature to make it understandable.

8.  Nurses with advanced degrees are engaged in research about the environment and health.

9.  Health organizations recognize nurses’ roles in environmental health.

10. Nursing education and standards of nursing practice require that nurses know how to reduce exposures to environmental health hazards.

Nurses have always been leaders in providing healing and safe environments for people.  Nurses protect their patients and their communities. (See Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing published in 1860.) Nurses are everywhere that other people are. We work in hospitals and other health care settings, homes, schools and occupational sites. Each of these places has hazards that can cause illness, injury, or premature death. Nurses work to protect people from hazards and to reduce the hazards. Nurses advocate for environments in which people can not only survive, but thrive (ANA, 2007). 

Nurses are trusted sources of information. The most recent Gallup poll of US residents shows that for the seventh year, nurses are ranked the most honest and ethical profession.  When nurses speak, people listen. Nurses provide information to patients and the public about healthy and safe environments. These environments promote human health. They help prevent illness, disability and premature death.

Registered Nurses (RNs) are the largest healthcare occupation. (See Department of Labor, 2010) There are almost 3 million RNs out of 308 million Americans. (See U.S. Health Resources Services Administration, The Registered Nurse population: Findings from the March 2004 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses) One in every one hundred Americans is a Registered Nurse. Therefore, most residents of the United States come in contact with nurses.

Nurses have experience working with persons from various racial, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. We also work with persons across the lifespan, from pregnant women and newborns to those at the end of their life. Nurses build on these deep and broad communication networks to protect and improve human health.

Nurses have the capacity to effect decisions in their own homes, their work settings, and their communities. Nurses influence decisions in work setting---schools, clinics, homes, nursing homes, and hospitals. Health Care Without Harm is an international coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries, working to transform the health care sector so it is safer for patients and workers. Nurses also help make decisions about health as members of community groups such as PTAs, churches, and other faith-based institutions. The numbers of nurses and their personal influence creates a unique opportunity to make change. 

Nurses are uniformly viewed as trusted, un-biased sources of information by policy-makers and the public (Barbara Sattler). Nurses partner with professional and citizen groups that are addressing a wide range of environmental hazards which affect human health. Some nurses are actively involved in policy and advocacy work at the state and federal government level. Safer Chemicals Healthy Families is a campaign led by nurses to pass U.S. federal policies that protect us from toxic chemicals.                                                           

Nurses are translators of scientific health literature. Nurses help patients, families, and members of their community to understand studies about environmental health. The Research Work Group of the Alliance of Nurses for Environmental Health (ANHE) is creating a library of nursing research articles on environmental health. This will better identify evidence-based practices that nurses can implement with individuals, families, and communities. 

Nurses with advanced degrees are engaged in research about the environment and health. ANHE also is promoting nurse researchers and sharing information about funding sources for research. The Research Work Group of ANHE has surveyed nurses to explore the priorities for research related to environmental health and nursing. Nurses with a research-focused doctorate usually have a Doctor in Philosophy (PhD) degree and are leading this research.

Health organizations recognize nurses’ roles in environmental health. The World Health Organization states that it is essential for  nurses to promote healthy environments, especially homes (Adams, Bartram, & Chartier, 2008). The International Council of Nurses (2007) asserts that nurses should help reduce environmental hazards and promote clean water.  In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published the report, Keeping patients safe: Transforming the work environment of nurses. This report advocates for making hospitals and health care facilities safer for both patients and nurses.  Nurses are to “create a safe care environment that results in high quality patient outcomes” (AACN, 2008, p. 31).

In 2010, the American Nurses’ Association (ANA) added an environmental standard to Nursing: Scope and Standards for all RNs. This standard advocates that “the registered nurse integrates the principles of environmental health for nursing in all areas of practice” (ANA, 2010, p. 57).  That means that every nurse should improve his or her knowledge and skills to reduce environmental hazards and promote health.  No matter what our level of nursing education, no matter what our nursing experience, each of us needs to keep up with the expanding evidence about environmental health (AACN, 2006, 2008; NLNAC, 2008).  Each of us needs to integrate that information into our nursing practice.  (See Principles of Environmental Health for Nursing Practice later in this document.)

Nursing education organizations require nurses’ roles in environmental health. All nurses are to serve as positive role models within healthcare settings and their community (National League for Nursing, NLN, 2000).  All nurses need to know how to reduce exposure to environmental health hazards and provide safe physical environments. “Nurses use evidence-based decisions to deliver client care and [help] move clients toward positive health outcomes” (NLN, 2000, p. 14). Nurses with a diploma or an associate degree are focused primarily on the health of individuals and families (NLN). Every individual and every family has some environmental hazards.

Nurses with baccalaureate education expand their focus to include communities and population health (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, AACN, 2008; Association of Community Health Nursing Educators, ACHNE, 2010). Population health includes health promotion and disease/injury prevention with groups, communities, and populations (AACN, 2008; ACHNE, 2010).   

Graduates with Master’s degree in a nursing specialty or a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree are educated to be leaders in nursing practice. As leaders in the practice arena, “DNPs provide a critical interface between practice, research, and policy” (AACN, 2006, p. 14). “The DNP graduate has a foundation in clinical prevention and population health” (AACN, 2006, p. 15. This foundation includes the nurses’ ability to analyze occupational and environmental data to plan, implement and evaluate their practice for clinical prevention and population health.

Next: Principles of Environmental Health for Nursing

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Last updated 127 days ago by Katie Huffling