Developing curriculum recommendations for environmental health in nursing

Area of Science:

• Environmental health
• Nursing education
• Public health policy

Background:

• In 2010, the American Nurses Association (ANA) mandated the integration of environmental health into nursing practice.
• This standard requires nurses to implement environmental health strategies.
• There was a recognized need to prepare nurse educators for this integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop environmental health competencies for nursing faculty.
• To create curricular recommendations for integrating environmental health into nursing education at all levels.
• To provide resources for implementing environmental health education.

Main Methods:

• Nursing faculty from the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments collaborated.
• Competencies and curricular recommendations were developed.
• Internet URLs for environmental health curricula were compiled.

Main Results:

• Environmental health competencies for nurse educators were established.
• Curricular recommendations for undergraduate and graduate nursing programs were created.
• Accessible resources, including URLs, were provided for curriculum development.

Conclusions:

• Nurse educators are now equipped with competencies and curricula to teach environmental health.
• The developed resources support the integration of environmental health across all nursing education levels.
• This initiative addresses the ANA's requirement for environmental health in nursing practice.