Environmental Nursing: Leaders Reflect On The 50th Anniversary Of Earth Day
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Phoebe Ann Pollitt PhD, Associate Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Abstract: The notion that “it takes a village” rings particularly true for the incredible progress that a small village of environmental health nursing leaders has helped to accomplish. Many nurses who come to environmental health also have had an abiding relationship to “nature” which in many cases has meant the great outdoors—our experiences hiking and camping, on our farms, and in gardens. For some nurses protecting our land, air, and water is a natural extension of this first relationship with nature. As nurses, we learn that our environments also include indoor environments, such as our workplaces, schools, and institutions. Our environments are also our neighborhoods and communities in relation to nearby industries, hazardous waste sites, aerial spraying of pesticides, and oil/gas wells. And as nurses we weave our knowledge about the human body, vulnerable populations, and health disparities into our learning so that environmental health and environmental justice become the goal posts for our newly integrated environmental health and nursing efforts. The seminal report “Nursing, Health & Environment,” prepared for the Institute of Medicine in 1995, identified four key areas for nursing focus. Since then, these are addressed as the REAP Framework: Research, Education, Advocacy, and Practice. This article contains a compendium of stories about and by seven nursing leaders and one Indigenous midwife who have written, worked, and led in environmental health and nursing over the past 50 years. It is our way of sharing nurses’ history in these endeavors and celebrating it in the context of this month's 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
Environmental Nursing: Leaders Reflect On The 50th Anniversary Of Earth Day
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Created on 3/30/2021
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Pollitt, P, Sattler, B, Butterfield, PG, et al. Environmental nursing: Leaders reflect on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Public Health Nurs. 2020; 37: 614– 625. https://doi.org/10.1111/phn.12703. Publisher version of record available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phn.12703
- Language: English
- Date: 2020
- Keywords
- nursing, environmental nursing, environmental health, environmental justice, health and fitness, Earth Day