Using ToxNet for evidence-based environmental health and nursing

Nurses are increasingly being asked questions by individuals and the communities they serve about the relationship between the environment and human health such as, could pesticide exposures have caused my child’s autism; how can fracking affect our community's health?  If nurses are going to provide answers that are evidence-based, we must be facile in accessing reputable sources of information and the literature. Through its ToxNet programs, the National Library of (NLM) has created a dynamic set of databases and informational sources.  In collaboration with NLM librarians, university librarians and nursing faculty a new educational program was created that uses case studies to teach nurses how to access the peer-reviewed research literature, government reports, zip code-related exposure information, and environmental health tutorials.   The cases include a children’s environmental health issue, agricultural exposures to pesticides, exposures to pregnant women, and community-wide exposures to chemicals associated with fracking.   The new tool has been vetted by nursing faculty, nursing students, and practicing nurses who found the program informative and relevant to their practice.   In addition to learning about the resource tools, the nurses learned important environmental health content.   Given that the latest Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice includes an Environmental Health Standard of Practice, it is critical that all nurses have the tools and knowledge to integrate environmental health into their nursing education, practice, research and policy/advocacy.