The future health impacts of climate change are well documented, with forecasts made of increasing health problems caused by heatwaves, storms, floods, fires, droughts and infectious diseases [1,2]. The consequences of climate change are likely to lead to an increased demand on emergency and health services; it is clear that the environmental problems and effects associated with it are already impacting most heavily on the poorest and most vulnerable members of developing countries, including older people, children, and low-income families and it is this disproportionate effect on the most disadvantaged that is likely to further contribute to health inequalities and climate injustice [3].

Nichols et al [4] have shown that the British medical profession acknowledges the threat from climate change and has begun to take initiatives towards mitigation and adaptation [5,6]. The nursing profession in Canada is taking a lead and state that ‘nurses are uniquely qualified to support adaptation to and mitigation of climate change’ [7]. However the British nursing profession has been relatively inactive [8]. This lack of leadership is contrary to the stated view of the UK nursing professional body, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, that nurse education should be orientated towards holistic care, with an emphasis that avoids a narrow disease-orientated perspective and instead encompasses health promotion and health education [9].

Increasingly it is being suggested that healthcare practitioners, who have a responsibility to protect and promote the health of the public, should also be working to prevent climate change [10] and promoting sustainability. The UK Public Health Association and Faculty of Public health [11.12] outline strategies for promoting health and sustainable development, and the Climate and Health Council [13] aims to mobilise health professionals across the world to take action to limit climate change and its effects on human health.

Individual and community resilience are at the heart of sustainability and are embedded within the wider determinants of health [14]. The concept of resilience and psychological hardiness, which features in the nursing and organisational psychology literature is associated with better physical health [15,16], and needs to be considered and integrated into the health care curriculum if we are to maximise resilience and promote health. By virtue of the size of its estate and significant number of employees, the NHS has enormous potential to mitigate the impact of climate change [17]. It has also been argued that the responsibility of health care practitioners as protectors and promoters of public health and well-being, should be extended to working to mitigate the effects of climate change and to encourage sustainability in their practice. With this in mind, embedding sustainability into the pre and post registration nursing curriculum and raising sustainability consciousness within the student population is crucial if healthcare professionals of the future are to influence and take this responsibility seriously. There is already an emerging sustainability consciousness within the student population and initiatives such as this can assist the University of Plymouth in holding a leadership position within the field [18].

In circumstances where the leadership of a professional body is inactive can a ‘grassroots movement’ bring about change? Students have the potential to become ambassadors for sustainability and support resilience building within communities [19]. They may be engaged through Communities of Practice (COPs) [20] which form when groups of individuals unite to address shared common concerns or interests.
 

So...how do go about doing this?

references:

1. McMichael A. J, Woodruff R. E. & Hales, S. (2006) "Climate change and human health: present and future risks." Lancet 367(9513): 859-69.
2. Maryon-Davis A, Gilmore I, & Hamilton P. (2007) "Climate change and health. We must all act now...” British Medical Journal 335(7630): 1110-1110.
3. Rao, M., in Griffiths, J., Rao, M., Fiona Adshead, F.,Allison Thorpe, A (2009) (eds) The Health Practitioner's Guide to Climate Change: Diagnosis and Cure. London, Earthscan
4. Nichols A., Maynard V., Goodman B., Richardson J. (2009) Health, Climate Change and Sustainability: A systematic Review and Thematic Analysis of the Literature. Environmental Health Insights [3]:63-88 http://www.la-press.com/article.php?article_id=1603 accessed November 2009
5. Stott R. and Godlee F. (2006) “What should we do about climate change?” British Medical Journal, 333 (7576) 983-984.
6. Griffiths J., Rao M., Adshead F., Thorpe A. (eds) (2009) The Health Practitioner’s Guide to Climate Change: Diagnosis and Cure. London, Earthscan
7. http://www.cna-aiic.ca/CNA/issues/environment/climate/default_e.aspx accessed November 2009
8. Goodman B., Richardson J. Climate Change, Sustainability and Health in United Kingdom Higher Education: The Challenges for Nursing (forthcoming). In: Jones P., Selby D., Sterling S. Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice Across Higher Education. London, Earthscan
9. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2004) ‘Standards of Proficiency for Pre Registration Nursing Education’, www.nmc-uk.org/aDisplayDocument.aspx?documentID=328 accessed 6 October 2009
10. Gill M., Goodlee F., Horton R., Stott R. (2007) Doctors and climate change. British Medical Journal 335:1104-1105
11. Climates and Change: The Urgent Need to Connect Health and Sustainable development. The UK Public Health Association (2007)
12. Sustaining a Healthy Future: Taking Action on Climate Change. The Faculty of Public Health (2008)
13. Climate and Health Council http://www.climateandhealth.org/. accessed November 2009
14. Department of Health Guidance Document. The Health Impact of Climate Change; Promoting Sustainable Communities (April 2008)
15. Lambert C. Lambert VA (1993) Relationships among faculty practice involvement, perception of role stress, and psychological hardiness of nurse educators. Journal of Nurse Education. 32(4) 171-9
16. Lambert, Clinton Lambert, VA (1999) Psychological Hardiness: State of the Science. Hardiness and Health Holistic Nursing Practice 13(3):11-19
17. Coote A. (2006) What health services could do about climate change. British Medical Journal 332:1343-4
18. Selby D., Jones P., Kagawa F.(2008) A Big Hairy Audacious Goal: Marketing University Sustainability Credentials. http://csf.plymouth.ac.uk/?q=marketing accessed November 2009
19. Butler, A., Ford, D., Garrard., D., Horton, V.,Whiteford., Sustaining Communities; Sustainability in the Social work curriculum.(forthcoming). In Jones, P., Selby, D., Sterling, S. Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice Across Higher Education. London, Earthscan
20. Wenger, E. (2000) Communities of Practice: the structure of Knowledge Stewarding. In Knowledge horizons: the present and the promise of Knowledge management. Woburn MA Butterworth Heinemann.