The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes climate change as “the single biggest health threat” of our time. Without action, a healthy planet for future generations is at risk.
Nurses are on the frontlines as public health leaders, first responders and witnesses to the impacts of climate change on human health, from people experiencing heat-related illnesses to increased health disparities among vulnerable populations. As the nation’s most trusted profession, nurses can help protect their patients from the impact of climate change, whether by advocating for waste-reduction policies within their health systems or advocating for policy change at local, regional and federal levels.
The SEE YOU NOW podcast interviewed public health nurse Kasey Bellegarde, MPH, RN and physician Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD, president and CEO of The Joint Commission, who shared their perspectives on how nurses can impact climate policy and how the health sector can lower its carbon footprint while also building a brighter, greener, and more equitable future for generations to come.
Here are three key facts from the episode.
The consequences of climate change are profound.
A child born today will be affected by climate change at every single stage of their life, according to a 2019 Lancet Countdown report. This statistic was a climate change wakeup call for Kasey Bellegarde, MPH, RN, and helped her realize how far her impact as a public health nurse might reach.
At the time, Bellegarde was working for a county health department in Colorado called Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), an evidence-based, nurse-led home visiting program where nurses are paired with first-time mothers to visit them throughout their pregnancy and their baby’s first few stages of life.
“This statistic was a huge connector for me of how these climate environmental determinants are shaping health. And because NFP is so grounded in innovation and the power of nurse-led solutions, it was an invitation for me to step into this space to ask, what could we be doing in our communities as nurses to combat climate change, which is impacting vulnerable populations?”
Going into the community for those one-on-one experiences showed her the unique role public health nurses play in patients’ lives from beginning to end, and how structural inequities impact their access not just to care, but normal day-to-day needs.
“As public health nurses, our practice is beyond the walls of the hospital. We get to see these environments that people are living, where they’re growing and raising their children, where they’re aging, getting to see a more complete picture of their lives and experience.”
Healthcare as an industry contributes to climate change.
If the healthcare sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest carbon emitter on the planet. The top producers of greenhouse gases from healthcare are the United States (27%) and China (17%), with the rest of the world contributing the remaining 56%.
Decarbonizing the healthcare industry has become a priority for The Joint Commission, a non-governmental organization that aims to provide healthcare workers with the safest, healthiest working environments possible.
“Those of us who come to healthcare with the desire for social good, to help others, we now realize that an inadvertent byproduct of what we’re doing is harming the environment. So, we have a huge opportunity here to leave the world better for our children, but also to arrest the damage on the world that we’re experiencing today,” explains Jonathan Perlin, MD, PhD, president and CEO of The Joint Commission.
Reducing the carbon footprint is essential to addressing environmental factors that contribute to health disparities and mitigating the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
For example, Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to breathe polluted air. Nearly 80 percent of farmworkers identify as Hispanic or Latino, meaning they are on the frontlines of climate-related emergencies, and are 35 times more likely to die from heat-related stress than workers in other sectors. Dr. Perlin urges hospitals and health systems to seize the opportunity to advance health equity through nurses, the “engine of healthcare.”
The Commission has worked with many healthcare organizations to begin and expand their decarbonization efforts – such as using alternative anesthetics without fluorinated hydrocarbons, replacing light bulbs with LEDs and only purchasing products with carbon labeling to measure output.
Nurses can help turn the tide.
Bellegarde brought together a “small but mighty” group of NFP nurses in Colorado that were passionate about climate health. She also discovered the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, a leading organization in making the connection for nurses between health and the environment. Through these partnerships, Bellegarde realize the importance of public policy in making an impact on climate change, especially when it comes to greenhouse gases.
From there, she was accepted to attend COP27 in 2022, the United Nations’ annual climate conference, with the University of Minnesota delegation. There, professionals from several industries join to negotiate solutions to climate change, and Bellegarde emphasized that nurses are instrumental in high-level global discussions and decisions on climate change and action.
“My question for nurses is, ‘don’t we want to be there?’,” she said. “Don’t we want to be to be a part of advocating and shaping and influencing these solutions with our patients and our communities in mind?”
Perlin agrees that nurses are at the forefront of change when it comes to the climate crisis. “Nurses are central to the operations of healthcare. We need your help starting a movement in health equity and avoiding climate change and maintaining environmental sustainability.”
Want more stories of nurses leading in health equity amid climate change? Check out the nurse scientist helping farm workers stay cool here.
