Nurses and Environmental Action

Environmental health is a big subject and it can be difficult for an individual nurse to know where to even begin. It’s also easy to feel powerless in the face of environmental hazards beyond your personal control.

However, nurses — being both highly educated and widely trusted — are in a unique position to shape public discourse surrounding environmental issues. Helping nurses do that is the mission of the ANHE. Founded over a decade ago, the organization is a cross-specialty alliance of nurses, nurse midwives and other APRNs dedicated to educating and empowering nurses on environmental health.

Getting Involved

The ANHE website, envirn.org, offers a variety of resources, ranging from a textbook on environmental health issues to reports designed to familiarize you with specific topics like water pollution.

Those resources emphasize opportunities for individual nurses to take action, whether it’s leaving a public comment on a proposed regulatory change or writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.  Another opportunity to get involved is the Nurses Climate Challenge, a joint initiative of the ANHE and Health Care Without Harm that is recruiting “Nurse Climate Champions” to help educate other healthcare professionals about the threat climate change poses to human health.

To learn more, visit nursesclimatechallenge.org.

In this Article: Environmental Issues