Environmental Health Education for Nurses

Superfund Basic Research Program

In the United States, there is a major deficit with respect to environmental health education and the health impacts of environmental toxins and hazardous waste practices in the education of nurses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Stephanie Chalupka, RN, EdD, a Visiting Scholar in the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) SBRP Outreach Program, has developed The Core Curriculum in Environmental Health.  The contents address the competencies specified by the National League for Nursing. The development of the program was funded by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). The Harvard School of Public Health SBRP provided content-related resources for the curriculum and consultation time with Dr. Susan Korrick, an SBRP researcher.  The goal of the curriculum and of the outreach to nurses is to increase the capacity for environmental health nursing in the United States and basically to build a cadre of nurses who include environmental health nursing in their practice.

The text covers topics including:

• The nature and scope of environmental hazards
• Distribution of toxic agents in the environment
• Exposure pathways
• Hazard classification
• Vulnerable populations with a special emphasis on pediatrics
• Toxic threats to child development
• Risk assessment and communication
• Methods for obtaining an environmental exposure history
• Priority research areas
• Advocacy for environmental health
• Role of occupational and environmental health nurses in promoting environmental health.

The curriculum is now in the dissemination phase.  Twelve "train-the-trainer" workshops for nursing faculty will take place over the next year.  Workshops or additional conferences already accomplished in 2002 include "The Impact of the Environment on Health," at University of Massachusetts (UMASS) Lowell; "Environmental Health – Nurses Making the Connection for Health and Well Being," American Nurses Association, Pre-conference Workshop, Philadelphia; "Core Curriculum in Environmental Health," University of Illinois at Chicago's Great Lakes Center for Health and the Environment, Chicago; and "Nursing, Health, and the Environment – Strengthening the Relationship to Improve the Health of Vermonters," Burlington, VT.

In the New England region, the Burlington, Vermont Conference "Nursing, Health, and the Environment" sponsored by the Vermont Department of Health, Tufts University, and the Harvard School of Public Health, laid down the framework that will enable the 12 Environmental Health Specialists who service all 14 counties in Vermont to address environmental health issues at the individual community level and potentially to reach the entire population of 600,000 people.  Coordinated by another HSPH Visiting Scholar, Eileen Girling, Director of Community Health Nursing at the Vermont Department of Health, this "EH Specialist" structure provides a direct link between communities and the Vermont Department of Health with respect to issues such as clean drinking water, landfills, and toxic wastes.

To continue to enhance environmental health nursing, the Vermont Department of Health has established collaborative efforts with the University of Vermont Nursing program (nursing education), and the Harvard School of Public Health SBRP (GIS project assistance).