The
University of Maryland School of Nursing,
with support from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Children's Health Protection,
is developing "ABCs of School-Based Environmental Health,"
an initiative to provide school nurses with a quick reference compendium
about school environmental health issues. Issues presented will include
indoor air quality, drinking water, lead, environmentally preferable
products, and pesticides. The compendium will include (a) an overview
describing children's special vulnerabilities, and (b) a description
of the historical factors that have led to the present state of school
buildings. The compendium will also include educational materials
for students and parents.
In 1987,
Pamela Ortner, BSN, RN, CCM, COHN-S (graduate student in the Occupational
Health Nursing program at the University of Michigan)
became involved with "Clean Air, Please!," a local community
group that was working to close a municipal solid waste incinerator
located 250 feet from a middle school and a school for the mentally
challenged. She eventually became president of the group. The incinerator
was closed in 1988, after 33 years of operation. A recycling program
advocated by Clean Air, Please! was started at the site. Now, the
14 communities that sent their garbage to the incinerator (350,000
people) recycle 600 tons a day, which equals the amount that was being
incinerated.
Ms. Ortner
now works with Health Care Without
Harm (HCWH).
HCWH has been successful in convincing local hospitals to close their
medical waste incinerators and turn instead to recycling and other
cleaner alternatives.
St. John Oakland Hospital (Madison Heights, Michigan)
closed its incinerator in September 2000.
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The
University of Maryland School of Nursing
has developed a descriptive survey that will be administered to community
members in Avis, Pennsylvania. Community members, who are concerned
about their drinking water quality, contacted the school and asked
for assistance. The purpose of the survey is to determine possible
relationships between water use and adverse health outcomes. The objectives
of this project are to assess the level of community concern with
water quality issues, explore the possible relationship between water
use and morbidity, and identify educational needs of community members
in relation to alternative sources of water selected.
The
University of Maryland School of Nursing,
in cooperation with the American Nurses
Foundation and the American Nurses Association (ANA),
is developing an initiative to increase nurses' knowledge and understanding
of the environmental health risks facing children. The primary mechanism
to accomplish this task will be the implementation of continuing education
programs and preconference training sessions. Journal articles and
continuing education modules related to children's special vulnerabilities
to environmental hazards will be developed and published in The
American Nurse, as well as on the ANA's continuing education Web
site (http://nursingworld.org/ce/cehome.cfm).
The initiative is funded by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Children's Health
Protection.
The University
of Maryland School of Nursing is now being supported by the
Kellogg Foundation,
the Bauman Foundation, the National
Environmental Education and Training Foundation,
and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency
to continue a wide array of nursing and environmental health initiatives.
These initiatives include faculty development in the Southern United
States, and day-long workshops with nursing subspecialty organizations
such as the National Association of
School Nurses,
the American College of Nurse Midwives,
and the Nursing Organization Leadership Forum. The forum represents
over 80 nursing subspecialty organizations. For more information on
these projects, visit the University of Maryland School of Nursing
Web site at http://enviRN.umaryland.edu.
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Eight senior
nursing students from Georgetown
University School of Nursing and Health Studies
are involved with an Association of
Schools of Public Health/Bureau
of Health Professionals grant to increase environmental health field
experiences for Bachelor of Science in Nursing students. One focus
this semester has been food safety. The students conducted interviews
in a local school program after a foodborne outbreak, and contributed
child-targeted bilingual food safety education information for an
existing Web site.
Suan Wilburn,
RN, MS, an occupational and environmental staff member at the
American Nurses Association (ANA),
has helped to create the
ANA Pollution Prevention Kit,
an excellent primer on pollutants that nurses can use to educate themselves
and their patients. The primer is, in part, a response to the 1997
Pollution Prevention Resolution of the ANA.
Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can
change the world, in fact, it's the only thing that ever has.—Margaret
Mead
The impact
of even one nurse's environmental advocacy efforts cannot be underestimated.
Recently, Laura Anderko, RN, PhD (Assistant Professor,
Northern Illinois University,
DeKalb, Illinois) collaborated with a local citizen group and spoke
as an expert witness at several meetings to halt the commencement
of a housing development planned for property formerly used as an
illegal hazardous waste site. Eighteen months later a victory was
achieved: No ground-breaking would be permitted on the property until
a letter indicating "no further remediation" was received
from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
This decision was made despite a great deal of political pressure
from the mayor and the builder's attorney to go forward with the development
as originally planned. Consultations with representatives from the
regional and state EPA offices, the
Sierra Club,
the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry,
county government offices, and the county health department were instrumental
in acquiring more detailed information about the dumping. Dr. Anderko
reports that success lies in collaboration and perseverance.
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Charlotte
Brody, RN, BSN, is the codirector of the international
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)
campaign, a coalition-based campaign with over 290 organizational
members, including the American Nurses
Association.
Nurses are playing a key role in this campaign. The campaign has had
a series of victories in changing the ways in which the health-care
industry purchases materials; manages its waste; eliminates mercury
and latex; and minimizes the exposure of health professionals, patients,
and community members to hazardous chemicals. For more information
about the international campaign, visit the HCWH Web site at http://noharm.org.
Nurses in
Montana are working with the Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry to initiate a new medical monitoring program.
A population previously exposed to lead by mining activities will
be screened for hypertension and renal disease. Nurses are key players
in the administrative, screening, and education aspects of this environmental
health program. For more information, call 1-877-201-4264.
EnviRN (http://enviRN.umaryland.edu)
was developed and is maintained by the University of Maryland School
of Nursing through funding from the Kellogg Foundation and the National
Environmental Educational and Training Foundation. This Web-based
resource on environmental health and nursing supports nursing faculty
who are seeking to integrate environmental health into nursing curricula.
The Basic
Concepts link addresses the fundamentals of environmental health,
including video, PowerPoint, and curriculum materials. The Assessment
link helps nurses investigate the impact of environmental hazards
on health. Nurses can look up facts about specific hazards, view graduate
student projects on environmental health, view digitized videos of
environmental health conferences, and link to a wealth of resources
organized by content.
The EnviRN
Web site includes a chat room (under the Forum link), a Resources
link, an Intervention link, and much more. The site also links to
other important efforts to educate and inform nurses—efforts such
as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
(ATSDR) Web page for nurses and the ATSDR Webcast, "Environmental
Health and Nursing." This dynamic resource is the nurses' gateway
to technical, consumer, and educational information on the Web.
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In response
to an invitation from the Bauman Foundation, the
University of Maryland School of Nursing
has developed a pilot project to educate nurses in Maryland and New
Jersey about the
Safe Drinking Water Act.
The initiative seeks to prepare nurses to understand the key elements
of the Safe Drinking Water Act, understand the special vulnerabilities
that their patients may have to biologic and chemical contaminants
found in their drinking water, advise patients on appropriate actions
to ensure drinking water safety, and collaborate with advocates for
safer drinking water.
