The International Family Nursing Association (IFNA) has launched a year-long series of blog posts to support implementation of the organization’s Position Statement on Planetary Health and Family Health. Last month on Earth Day, we reflected on how our emergence from isolation offers a unique opportunity to commit to new behaviors that will protect the health of the planet and as a result, improve the health of families. This month’s focus is on the first of nine essential activities outlined in the position statement: Teaching future nurses about the relevance of planetary health to family health.
If you’re reading this blog post, you’re likely curious, committed, or cautious about including planetary health content in your prelicensure or graduate nursing curriculum. Family nursing educators are well-positioned to teach future nurses about planetary health as an example of biopsychosocial and contextual phenomena that influence family health. Yet incorporating a planetary lens can feel daunting, and efforts to add more to an existing curriculum may be met with resistance. Please keep reading – we’ve curated a set of 10 multimedia and open access resources that already exist to support educators in taking the next step.
#1. Planetary Health Education Framework
At the top of our go-to list of teaching resources for planetary health is the newly released Planetary Health Education Framework, developed by a taskforce of thought leaders in planetary health and education that was convened by the Planetary Health Alliance. The framework considers five foundational domains that comprise the “essence of Planetary Health knowledge, values and practice”. Start here if you’re looking to create a learning resource or embed planetary health content into an existing curriculum.
#2. Planetary Health Presentation Slide Deck
If you need an introductory presentation on planetary health to make a case for why this is important (to students, providers, administrators, or colleagues), the Planetary Health Alliance has done the work of creating a set of slides for you to download and use or adapt. There is some great content and amazing quotes and images in this slide deck. Be sure to credit PHA as appropriate if you use their content.
#3. Curricular Road Map
If you’re ready to include planetary health in your curriculum, but need help getting started, a road map can help. The Association for Medical Education in Europe recently released a Consensus Statement on Planetary Health and Education for Sustainable Healthcare. This publication includes an extensive road map and recommended targets for eco-ethical leadership, learning outcomes and objectives, assessment approaches, advocacy, and curricular and faculty development. You can access all of these in the article at https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1860207.
#4. Database of Planetary Health Education Resources
If you need examples of certificate and degree programs, surveys, courses, and fellowships related to planetary health education, the Planetary Health Alliance has created an open-access database of planetary health education resources and opportunities from around the world. You can scroll through the database and contribute new resources on their website at https://www.planetaryhealthalliance.org/ed-database
#5. Interactive Eco-Health Relationship Map
Are you curious to know what scientific evidence exists about links between ecosystems and human health? The Eco-Health Relationship Browser is a cool interactive tool that lets you explore relationships between dozens of health outcomes and ecosystems. For example, here’s the eco-health relationship map for mental health. The tools also includes lesson plans and education tools for all grade levels.
#6. High Quality Planetary Health Videos
There are a number of excellent videos available that provide compelling rationale for why planetary health is important to human health. If you’re looking for a few to include in a presentation or course, start with these: “Planetary Health: The Future is Now” with Sam Myers at https://youtu.be/atAU0OJWFi0, “What is Planetary Health?” with Howie Frumkin at https://youtu.be/lw_I7rhn9eY, and “The Promise of Planetary Health” by the Planetary Health Alliance at https://youtu.be/9cZ0zBSJz_g
#7. Principles for Planetary Health Education
A few more tools for curricular development are available in this foundational publication by Stone and colleagues in the Lancet Planetary Health: “Cross-cutting principles for planetary health education“, at https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(18)30022-6. Here you’ll find a set of core messages for educators teaching planetary health, with guiding themes and principles intended as a tool for curricular development. You’ll want to bookmark this for future reference.
#8. Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast
Are you or your students into podcasts? The Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast may be just what you need to get your planetary health content on the move! Go to envirn.org/podcast to see their latest offerings as well as archived podcasts. These podcasts are hosted by Elizabeth Schenk, a healthcare sustainability leader in Montana, USA with over 3 decades of work in this area. A favorite episode is this one from Season 4 on the development of CHANT – a tool for measuring nurse engagement with climate change.
#9. Lancet Planetary Health Journal
For the latest peer-reviewed articles, evidence and commentaries on planetary health, you can explore the The Lancet Planetary Health open access journal. They offer a digest and a sign-up for alerts to keep the latest news and research flowing to your inbox.
#10. Environmental Health in Nursing E-Textbook
Finally, a gift to nurses and educators from the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments: an open access e-textbook for nurses and other health professionals. Environmental Health in Nursing at https://envirn.org/e-textbook/. This book won Book of the Year in Environmental Health by the American Journal of Nursing in 2017, a well-deserved honor. One of the editors, Katie Huffling, DNP, RN was a key collaborator on the development of the IFNA Position Statement on Planetary Health and Family Health (yay Katie!)
Do you have a resource to support teaching future nurses about the importance of planetary health? Please contribute to the conversation by tweeting your examples and mention @IFNAorg so that we can spread the word across our networks!
We will be back next month with another blog post about educating IFNA members about planetary health and family health. And be sure to join us for a virtual podium presentation by Paula Nersesian about the position statement at IFNC15 in June!
How to cite the position statement (APA 7th edition format):
International Family Nursing Association (IFNA). (2020). IFNA Position Statement on Planetary Health and Family Health. https://internationalfamilynursing.org/2020/04/18/ifna-position-statement-on-planetary-health-and-family-health/
Wendy S. Looman, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, is a Professor and Chair of the Child and Family Health Cooperative in School of Nursing at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the promotion of family health in the context of childhood chronic conditions. Dr. Looman studies family interventions to improve quality of life for children with medical complexity, with an emphasis on keeping family goals at the center of care coordination across multiple systems of care. She is a member of the IFNA Communications Committee and co-author of the IFNA Position Statement on Planetary Health and Family Health. You can follow her on Twitter @looma003.
Image credit: Katrina S, Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/images/id-3692572/
