Welcome to the Practice Forum!
All nurses practice, whether it is in clinical care, patient education, academia, research, entrepreneurialism, or the many other roles of nurses. The profession also has a performance standard which states “The registered nurse practices in an environmentally safe and healthy manner.” This means both preventing and reducing risk of environmental exposures for the patients and communities that nurses care for and addressing the environmental impacts caused by pollution from healthcare and nursing practice. This applies to all of us, no matter what practice setting or where the profession takes us.
The Practice Forum offers webinars and networking to help nurses achieve the standard of an environmentally safe and healthy practice. Nurses and nursing students can do this by: 1) Learning about health influences from environmental exposures so that we can care for patients and communities safely, 2) Reducing the environmental impacts of our own practice, from hospitals to universities to community settings, and 3) Better understanding the complex influences of the environment (and its degradation) on health, including climate, toxic chemicals, ecosystem disruption, and resource depletion.
Sign up for our forum listserve so you can stay up to date with our activities: Sign up and learn more below!
For more information about the ANHE Practice Forum, please contact info@envirn.org.
Resources for Nurses
Nurses for Healthy Environments podcast – Join ANHE Practice Work Group Chair Dr. Beth Schenk, a registered nurse and environmental health nurse champion, as she talks with nurses from around the country who are leading the profession in addressing environmental health issues. Every week you’ll be inspired by nurses making changes, big and small, to make our world healthier for everyone. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on an episode!
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) & Practice Greenhealth (PGH) – Two leading organizations in healthcare sustainability, HCWH and PGH offer a ton of resources on how healthcare facilities can reduce their environmental footprint through the adoption and implementation of sustainability initiatives and practices.
Listen to Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast
NHE 13 with Kathy Curtis
Practice Forum Co-Chairs
Elizabeth Joseph
Elizabeth Joseph, APRN-BC, MPH is a Nurse Practitioner and an Educator working at one of the largest hospitals (Jackson Health System-JHS) in Florida for 30 years. She is the coordinator for Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS) at JHS.
Ms. Joseph has volunteered in Haiti on three separate occasions after the 2010 earthquake and has contributed over 1000 hours of her time to develop nursing content and training guidelines for staff and administration at Bernard Mev hospital, Port O Prince, Haiti. While pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Health, she completed an internship at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
In 2019, Ms. Joseph attained a Sustainable Development Certificate from Harvard University and her research interests lie in the field of Climate Emergency and its impacts on health. She is a certified climate speaker from the CLEO institute (Miami) and has delivered several presentations on Climate Change and its impact on health nationally and internationally. She is one of the founding member and the co-chair of the Climate Committee at her hospital. Her other interests lie in the field of Ecotourism, with the main objective being to promote health and wellbeing for tourists, park and lodge staff and local communities. She has conducted on-site research on Ecolodges in four continents.
Kiley Petersmith
Kiley Petersmith, DNP, RN is the Core Coordinator and Assistant Professor for the Doctoral Public Health Policy Program at Nebraska Methodist College, where she brings experience in population health and health policy to the next generation of health leaders. A three-time alumna of Nebraska Methodist College, she holds a BSN, MSN in Nursing Education, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Public Health Policy.
Throughout her career, Dr. Petersmith has been an advocate for health equity and community-based interventions. Her past leadership as Director of Diversity and Community Engagement at Nebraska Methodist College was marked by the development and oversight of innovative, health-centered programs and partnerships—especially those addressing the social and environmental determinants of health in underserved communities. She directed mobile health initiatives including lead screening outreach in Omaha’s residential Superfund site and coordinated diabetes and chronic disease prevention programs and care coordination services, bringing care directly to where people live, work, play, and learn. Her scholarship and community engagement have earned her numerous accolades, including the Inspire Omaha Excellence in Education Nominee and the March of Dimes Public Health Nursing Hero Award.
She is a co-chair of the Practice Committee and member of the Policy & Advocacy Committee for the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. She also completed their fellowship program and a peer mentorship with the Climate Advocacy Lab. Dr. Petersmith serves on multiple advisory boards, including the Nebraska Child Lead Prevention Advisory Board, Omaha Colon Advisory Board, and previous member of Healthy Housing Omaha and Chair of Nebraska Action Coalition. Committed to advancing civic health, inclusive engagement, and systems-level change, Dr. Petersmith continues to shape equitable health policy, mobilize community partnerships, and mentor healthcare professionals in addressing environmental and social injustices that affect public health.