Planetary Health and Nursing - Concept Development for Nursing Studies (PHN)

 Illustration: Henry Schaper, © Hochschule Bielefeld

 Duration

01.09.2022 until 31.08.2023

Central email address

projekt-phn@hsbi.de 

Funded by

Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre as part of the "Freiraum 2022" call for proposals.

Brief description

The effects of the climate crisis, such as heat extremes, air pollution and high ozone levels, pose a high risk to the health of the population and in particular to older, chronically ill people and those in need of care. The consequences of the climate crisis include cardiovascular diseases (e.g. high blood pressure) and respiratory diseases such as asthma or allergies (Anderko et al., 2014; Pieters et al., 2015).

Current research shows that climate-specific educational opportunities are not sufficiently available in both training and studies (Ergin et al.; 2021; Richardson et al.; 2014; Tiitta et al., 2020). To date, the climate crisis and its health impacts have been attributed little relevance in nursing curricula. Considering the existing need for knowledge and action competencies to meet the challenges of the climate crisis in patient care, it is necessary to develop innovative teaching and learning concepts.

The project "Planetary Health and Nursing - Concept Development for Nursing Studies" (in short: PHN) deals with the conception, testing and reflection of four teaching/learning units for nursing studies at Bachelor and Master level.

Through the participation of students and the exchange with experts and practitioners, e.g. in the form of workshops and focus groups, the needs and requirements of the topic are included and considered in the development of the concepts. The aim of the project is to publish the validated teaching/learning content as Open Educational Resources (OER) via the state portal ORCA.nrw.

In this way, the project contributes to sensitizing nursing students to the climate crisis and the associated role of nursing, and to preparing them for the future requirements in practice.

Literature

Anderko, L., Davies-Cole, J. & Strunk, A. (2014). Identifying populations at risk: interdisciplinary environmental climate change tracking. Public Health Nursing, 31(6), 484–491. https://doi.org/10.1111/phn.12164

Ergin, E., Altinel, B. & Aktas, E. (2021). A mixed method study on global warming, climate change and the role of public health nurses from the perspective of nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 107, 105144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105144

Pieters, N., Koppen, G., van Poppel, M., Prins, S. de, Cox, B., Dons, E. et al. (2015). Blood Pressure and Same-Day Exposure to Air Pollution at School: Associations with Nano-Sized to Coarse PM in Children. Environmental Health Perspectives, 123(7), 737–742. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1408121

Richardson, J., Grose, J., Doman, M. & Kelsey, J. (2014). The use of evidence-informed sustainability scenarios in the nursing curriculum: development and evaluation of teaching methods. Nurse Education Today, 34(4), 490–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.07.007

Tiitta, I., McDermott-Levy, R., Turunen, H., Jaakkola, J. & Kuosmanen, L. (2021). Finnish nurses' perceptions of the health impacts of climate change and their preparation to address those impacts. Nursing Forum, 56(2), 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12540