Standard 16. Environmental Health

1. Standard 16. Environmental Health The registered nurse practices in an environmentally safe and healthy manner.

2. Definition of Environmental Health • Those aspects of human health, including quality of life, that are determined by these problems in the environment: • Physical • Chemical • Biological • Social,and psychological

3. Definition of Environmental Health • The environment includes the surrounding context, milieu, conditions, or atmosphere in which nursing practice occurs. • It also refers to: • The theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling, and • Preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect the health of present and future generations.

4. The Precautionary Principle • There is an ethical imperative to prevent rather than merely treat disease, even in the face of “scientific uncertainty.” • Nurses should use products and practices that do not harm human health or the environment and should take preventive action when there is such uncertainty.

5. Environmental Exposures and Health Problems Increasing scientific evidence on the association between environmental exposures to heavy metals, pesticides, air and water pollution, and other environmental toxins and such health outcomes as: • Reproductive and developmental problems • Cancer • Neurological, immunological, and metabolic disorders • Asthma and other respiratory illnesses. 

6. Environmental Exposures and Health Problems It is recognized that several environmentally influenced health problems are on a steep rise in the U.S., such as: Autism Asthma Obesity Certain childhood cancers Infertility

7. Nurses’ Workplace Exposures RNs handle various therapeutic chemicals and drugs with differing side effects and exposure rates in the course of their practice and can experience health reactions to diverse, chronic workplace exposures to: • Hazardous cleaning • Disinfecting and sterilizing agents • Radiation • Mercury compounds • Other chemicals 

8. Nurses’ Workplace Exposures One workplace study of physicians and nurses showed: • 18 of the same chemicals were detected in every single participant, • All 20 participants had at least five of the six major types of chemicals tested, • 13 participants tested positive for all six of these major chemical types, and • All participants had bisphenol-A, phthalates, PBDEs and PFCs: all chemicals associated with chronic illness such as cancer and endocrine malfunction.

9. Applications of Environmental Health Standard  Education Basic knowledge of scientific environmental health concepts.

10. Applications of the Environmental Health Standard  Administration An organizational culture that supports the incorporation of EH principles into nursing practice and advocacy.

11. Applications of the Environmental Health Standard  Quality Improvement EH hazards for patients and staff can be identified and exposure reduction strategies developed and implemented.

12. Applications of the Environmental Health Standard Research Nurses must be able to interpret and use research findings that: Expose environmental hazards Improve the human condition, and Maintain safe and healthy workplaces and communities