Navigating climate change and its impact on health

Earth Day, celebrated each year on April 22, elevates an ongoing global crisis and initiatives to engage citizens on behalf of the environment and our shared future. These efforts have heightened urgency as we wit­ness and experience an unprecedented number of extreme climate events.

Nurses play a vital role in finding and implementing solutions given that climate change affects the health and safety of all in profound and insidious ways. Wide-ranging health consequences underscore nurses’ essential contributions across many fronts: caring for and educating patients, preparing and innovating in our workplaces, and promoting policies that make a positive impact.

The Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice, 4th Edition, acknowledges that most nurses don’t have extensive education about disaster planning and might not practice in public health or emergency settings where they would likely see patients affected by disasters (hubs.ly/Q035MVxh0). However, this foundational doc­ument calls on nurses as lifelong learners to actively pursue educational opportunities to help them plan for, mitigate, and respond to environmental threats.

Regardless of where nurses practice, they’re credible messengers in educating patients about the potential health effects of climate change. The American Nurses Association position statement, Nurses’ Role in Addressing Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, describes nurses as “sources of hope” for patients in speaking truthfully, acting ethically, and advocating on their behalf (nursingworld.org/climate-change).

Nurses’ perspective on the interconnectedness of health and climate change makes them crucial advocates for initiatives that prepare and protect workplaces and communities.

Beyond preparedness, nurses can proactively create more sustainable workspaces and prac­tices. Identifying opportunities and insisting on and helping our workplaces decrease their environmental footprints matters greatly. Nurses are system thinkers; they should serve on committees, such as shared governance councils, and participate in strategic efforts to implement more sustainable practices. We know where the waste exists and have innovative and practical ideas for eliminating it.

For example, facilities nationwide reevaluated how they use I.V. fluids and implemented conservation measures after a plant that produces approximately 60% of fluids used in the United States was destroyed in 2024 during Hurricane Helene. Consequently, long-standing procedures changed rapidly. Although healthcare organizations had been comfortable wasting unused fluids, a climate event unlocked safe, resource-sparing strategies. Imagine the impact if we proactively implemented similar efficiencies across healthcare.

Nurses’ trusted role in society also opens doors for us to bring an indispensable hands-on perspective to community planning and decision-making. We don’t need to be public officials or public health nurses to do so. Our advocacy for sustainable resources and sensible solutions in our places of work, town halls, county commission meetings, and state legislatures will benefit all recipients of care.

The Code of Ethics for Nurses reminds us that the health and safety of nurses and patients are intertwined (hubs.ly/Q035MTdB0). The Code calls us to be prepared personally so that we can care for our patients and communities when the time comes.

Earth Day presents an opportunity each year to reflect on and recommit to substantive actions for local, community, and global health. While we continue to navigate climate change and its impact on health, progress and persistence on this front will help us imagine and create a more sustainable future made better through The Power of Nurses.

Jennifer Mensik Kennedy PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
President, American Nurses Association

American Nurse Journal. 2025; 20(4). Doi: 10.51256/ANJ042530