Expanding Environmental Care Competencies for Future and Current Healthcare Providers.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Population Health
• Nursing Education

Background:

• Healthcare practices can overshadow environmental impacts on population health.
• Environmental health principles are crucial for comprehensive patient and community care.
• Integrating environmental health into graduate nursing curricula is an emerging need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an innovative, problem-based graduate elective course on environmental health.
• To assess student and faculty outcomes from the course implementation.
• To identify lessons learned for future environmental health education.

Main Methods:

• A problem-based learning approach was used in a graduate elective course.
• The course focused on environmental determinants of health: soil, air, water, built environments, and planetary health.
• Implementation involved two cohorts of primarily second-degree undergraduate nursing students in 2023.

Main Results:

• Students demonstrated an expanded understanding of key environmental health content areas.
• Peer-to-peer support was identified as essential for graduate-level assignments.
• Faculty engaged in coaching and developing peer-mentoring activities.

Conclusions:

• The course successfully applied evidence-based environmental health principles to population-centered care.
• The problem-based approach fostered a deeper comprehension of environmental influences on health.
• The initiative highlighted the value of peer support and faculty mentorship in graduate environmental health education.