Integrating Environmental Health into Nursing Education, Practice, Research and Policy

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for the integration of environmental health into nursing – education, practice, research, and policy/advocacy. In recent years, as the general public has become more concerned about the relationship between their environment and health it has created a new incentive for nurses to learn about and engage in environmental health. Over the last two years a national network of nurses, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, has developed and is implementing a strategic plan that honors the recommended blueprint from the IOM. This new network is comprised of individual nurses and nurses representing nursing organizations (including the public health nursing section of APHA). In this session, there will be a review of the elements of this strategy and its implementation to date. It will include the educational tools that have been created based on consensus-built competencies for all nurses and for use when integrating environmental health into basic nursing curriculum; tools for incorporating environmental health risk factors into individual, home, and community assessments; tools for creating more environmentally healthy, safe and sustainable health care delivery settings (including clinics); a national research agenda for environmental health and nursing; and a mechanism to more effectively reach and mobilize nurses on state and national environmental health policies. This network-based model for integration has the potential to be adapted for other emerging scientific areas.