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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Marian E. Condon, RN, BSN, MS¹, Karen Ballard, RN, MS², Marjorie Buchanan, RN, MSN³, Brenda Afzal, RN, MS³, Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN³, Susan Wilburn, RN, MS⁴, Anna Gilmore-Hall, RN, MS², and Nancy Hughes, RN, MS⁴. (1) Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, American Nurses Association, 8515 Georgia Ave, Suite 400, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301 628-5138, marian.condon@ana.org, (2) 1901 N. Moore Street, Health Care Without Harm, 1901 N. Moore Street, Arlington, VA 22209, (3) Environmental Health Education Center, University of Maryland School of Nursing, 655 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, (4) Occupational and Environmental Health, American Nurses Association, 8515 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 21910

Nurses have, through both individual and organizational efforts, taken the lead in helping to reduce the impact that human enterprise has had on the environment, and by extension on human health. Nursing has of late taken this work further through development of documents that articulate environmental health principles for nursing, including efforts by the American Nurses Association, the Public Health Nursing Section of APHA, and the American College of Nurse Midwives, as well as a number of State Nurses Association. Policy statements to guide their organizational efforts based on the belief that environmental health is a priority and a valid part of nursing practice have been developed. Great progress has been made by nurses working with and through their professional organizations and in collaboration with other relevant organizations to create resolutions in order to institutionalize these documents. These policy statements regarding a range of environmental health risks are being adopted by nursing organizations, ranging from U.S. chemical policies to non-therapeutic use of antibiotics for livestock. The presenter of this session will discuss and describe the collaborations, and processes that have facilitated these efforts and some of the policy statements developed by nursing organizations will be reviewed.

Learning Objectives:

• To identify key elements of Environmental Health nursing principles that have been adopted by organizations.
• To describe at least one process by which a document that describes Environmental Health principles was adopted by a health care organization.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered