Nurses Leading Health Care Initiatives to Go Green

Florence Nighingale, the founder of the Nursing profession, was the first to identify the connection between the human health and the environment. Through her keen observation, she was able to realize that the status of the environment a person is in greatly affects how his/ her health would progress. And this theory was called 'Environmental theory" since it basically focuses on the patient's environment.Thus, through Nightingale's Environmental Theory, the nursing profession became a strong advocate of taking care of the environment.


As an active advocate of Environmentalism, the nursing profession initiates recycling, the conservation of energy and water, and the consumption of organic foods rather than the commercialized products.


Since the nurses treat their patients in a context, nurses not only look in to the client's personal aspect. More than the personal (physical) aspect of the patient, nurses look further to the patient's emotional, spiritual, social, cultural and environmental aspect which can greatly affect the clients health. By looking at things in a different lense, nurses are able to understand the importance of having a hazard-free and clean environment in relation to their patient's health status.


Further more, since hospitals are considered an environment, it is but important to keep the hospitals safe and clean so as to not compromise with the patient's health.


It's really nice because I, too, am an active advocate for the environment. And being a nursing student, I feel proud that the profession I am currently trying to pursue shares the same color as mine: GREEN. In my opinion, it is but important to keep our environment clean and in one piece again because this is our home, and home is where everythings starts and end. And since this is everybody's home, shouldn't the other profession follow too the footsteps of the nursing profession in embracing environmentalism?


 SOURCE:
News: Spotlight on Nursing