Expanding Environmental Care Competencies for Future and Current Healthcare Providers

Abstract

The multiple impacts of the environment on the health of populations can oftentimes be clouded by the daily care practices of healthcare providers. This case study describes an innovative graduate level elective course that uses a problem-based approach to apply evidence-based principles of environmental health to the care of populations. Initial implementation of the course, over two cohorts in 2023, had primarily second-degree undergraduate nursing students. Lessons learned included the necessity to provide peer-to-peer support for several of the graduate level assignments. Positive student outcomes included an expanded understanding of the three main content areas of the course: (1) how soil, air, and water must be considered in individual and population-centered care; (2) the impact of the design of the built and healthcare built environment; and (3) considerations of planetary health for sustainability and mitigation. Faculty outcomes included coaching of undergraduate students in this graduate course and the development of peer-to-peer mentoring activities.