247036 Raising Our Voices: Nurses speaking about environmental health in the halls of power

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 9:10 AM

Kathy Curtis, LPN , Clean and Healthy New York, Albany, NY
Mary Jane Williams, PhD, RN , Chair Government Relations Committee, Connecticut Nurses Association, Southington, CT
Katie Huffling, RN, MS, CNM , Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN , Environmental Health Education Center, University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
Environmental health issues are being addressed through a wide range of policy approaches, including institutional policies, local, state, and federal legislation and regulatory processes. Through the creation of the Policy and Advocacy Work Group of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments nurses are developing better capacity to weigh in on a variety of policies. The combination of training and educational efforts in the form of webinars to inform nurses about specific issues combined with the use of a web-based policy engagement tool – Democracy in Action – encourages nurses from around the country to actively engage in environmental health advocacy. The types of policy issues that they are addressing include national chemical policies, statewide children's environmental health legislation, and federal regulations on pesticides. In this presentation both the policies and the process of political engagement will be discussed.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Environmental health sciences
Public health or related nursing
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Describe training and educational efforts to engage nurses on environmental health advocacy efforts. Discuss the process of political engagement. Describe environmental health policies being addressed by nurses in the local to national level.

Keywords: Nurses, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Founding member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) and the co-chair of the Policy/Advocacy Work Group since its inception. I also have over 20 years experience with policy work.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.