Rebecca L. Clouse, RN BS, Environmental Health Education Center, University of Maryland School of Nursing, 655 W. Lombard Street, Room 665, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-706-1924, rclou001@umaryland.edu

The Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland School of Nursing provides students with many opportunities to increase their knowledge and proficiency in environmental health. Students are given hands on experience with maximum involvement to prepare them for future practice. The student is able to incorporate these experiences into core competencies in the Masters level preparation of Community and Public Health Nursing. In this presentation, several examples of experiences and projects will be discussed from a student’s perspective. These experiences will include: assisting in community outreach activities for Brownfield and Superfund communities; participating in environmental conferences; involvement in the state-level Environmental Policy summit; participating in the Greening of the School of Nursing projects [i.e. removing mercury containing equipment, improving recycling (including electronics), environmentally preferable purchasing, etc.]; participating in the efforts of the Maryland Governor’s Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities Commission; and performing a variety of computer-based tasks for gathering and distributing environmental health nursing information. Within the program, students are also given the opportunity to focus class projects on environmental health interests. Examples to be discussed include: researching and developing a political action plan for proposed air pollution legislation, developing an innovative plan to test for childhood lead poisoning in Baltimore City; a Power Point presentation for the public on well water safety; and others to follow.

Learning Objectives: