Climate Change and Our Health
- Climate change is predicted to have multiple effects. Are you prepared, as a nurse, to address the effects that are likely to be experienced in your community?
- Are there ways in which the nursing community can use our trusted voices about health to strengthen climate change policies and practices?
1. As I go through this course on environmental health, I am more aware of the negative health and environmental effects that are currently happening now and will happen in the near future if our conscious effort to reduce our carbon emissions is desensitized and unamended. I am solely prepared to advise my community but I can educate them on the effects of climate change, its causes and prevention. Using the fact sheet on climate change put out and endorsed by the Obama Administration is a good place to start my community education and preparedness on the health effects from climate change.
2. Since I have been informed and constantly reminded that our profession in nursing is the most trusted and reliable voice to influence change in policy and public safety, that, by using media and scientific data to convey our message and concern to policy makers, elected state and city officials and the general public that the need to address climate change will be impactful. One of the ways to influence awareness and action is through nursing and environmental disciplines to project the immediate need to change the way our society does things in order to preserve the planet and improve our green house gas emissions. Strong bodies that are made up of medical professionals and scientists have the greatest influence on policy change. Like the Obama Administration, they used reliable bodies of knowledge and experience to influence them release reports about climate change into the healthcare sectors.
Hello Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI agreed with you that climate change could impact human health in various ways as the ecology of our planet changes. Environmental changes such as increased heat waves, sea-level rise, and increased drought around the globe will aggravate already-existing health problems, increase the onset of new health problems, and, in some cases, cause premature death. Catastrophic events associated with these environmental changes, such as floods, and increases in hospital and routine clinic visits will have nurses on the front lines tending to those in need. Thanks for sharing your thought on this very important health issue.