Newswise — The public is becoming well aware of the many ways in which the environment can impact our health – as individuals and as a society. Nurses who are the most trusted sources of health information have challenged themselves to become capable, science-based players in the world of environmental health. Nurses are greening their curriculum, greening their hospitals, engaging in environmental health research, and advocating for policies at the institutional, local, state, and national level that protect people from environmental health risks and promote a healthy and sustainable world.
In December 2008, a group of 50 national nursing leaders helped to launch the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. The initial structure and function of the organization was created, the overall mission of the organization established:
The mission of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is to promote healthy people and healthy environments by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating evidence based practice and influencing policy.
The Alliance is guided by a national Steering Committee, made up of individual nurses and nurses representing their nursing organizations – state nurses’ associations, nursing specialty organizations (like school nurses, nurse midwives, pediatric nurse practitioners), and minority nurses’ associations. In June 2010, they will be holding the first environmental health and nursing national conference.
Since its inception, the Alliance’s members have been a busy group. They have been creating a set of core competencies that all nurses should attain regarding their knowledge/skills about environmental health. For example, nurses who work with pregnant women should be able to assess the environmental risks in that woman’s daily life which have the potential to harm her or the fetus and provide guidance for reducing the risks. To accomplish this, they have also created a standard curriculum that reflects the competencies which they are encouraging schools of nursing to adopt.
In the area of policy and advocacy, the Alliance has hit the ground running and is working with a national coalition on comprehensive chemical policy reform, working with other national groups on environmental health issues associated with sustainable agriculture, and working with national and international colleagues on climate change.
The Alliance has also created a unique mechanism for sharing environmental health and nursing resources through its web presence on www.e-commons.org, specifically www.e-commons.org/ANHE which combines the power of the web with the outreach capacity of social networking technologies.
Given that almost one in every one hundred Americans is a Registered Nurse, the prowess of this incredible community to educate the public, influence policy makers, and help heal the planet is virtually unlimited.
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