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Integrating Environmental Health into an Undergraduate Community Health Nursing Course
Author(s) -
Sweeney Nancy M.,
De Peyster Ann
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
public health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1525-1446
pISSN - 0737-1209
DOI - 10.1111/j.0737-1209.2005.220509.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , nursing , public health nursing , occupational health nursing , public health , health care , community health , nurse education , medical education , health education , medicine , psychology , political science , pedagogy , law
Nurses are often the first members of the healthcare system to whom the public turns when environmental health hazards cause concern. Yet most nursing programs include scant formal environmental health content. This article describes a project that integrated significant environmental health content into an undergraduate community health nursing course. The revised course included additional environmental health classroom content and field experiences. Details are provided regarding changes to classroom content, revision of written assignments to include environmental health issues, planning and implementation of nursing student field experiences with environmental health professionals, and evaluations of the revised course. The article concludes with three recommendations to guide other schools of nursing, wishing to integrate environmental health into their curricula.