Module Components

• Overview

Topics

• Case Study
• Definitions
• Environmental Health Risks at Home, Work, and in the Community
• Climate Change
• Disaster/Emergency Preparedness and Management
• Role of the PHN

Nurs 467 - Public Health Nursing

Module 11: Environmental Health and Emergency Preparedness

Overview

This module focuses on environmental health and emergency preparedness, two major components of public health nursing that often go hand-in-hand. Environmental health encompasses those facets of human health that are affected by physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial influences in the environment (ANHE, 2016). Healthy People 2020 recognizes that humans interact with the environment constantly. These interactions affect quality of life, years of healthy life lived, and health disparities. This first part of the module will introduce the learner to ways in which the environment affects human health. Then, sources and assessments of environmental hazards and environmental justice are presented. The remaining parts of the module introduce the learner to disasters and emergencies. Nurses have been caring for communities and populations affected by disasters and emergencies for generations. We will cover basic concepts and then touch on preparedness and management. We will complete the Curtis Bay case study in this module.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this module, the learner will be able to:

• Identify environmental hazards in the home, work place, and community
• Describe environmental justice
• Detail how climate change impacts human and environmental health.
• Define public health nurses’ roles in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
• Apply principles of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention to environmental health.
• Describe the impact of disasters, natural and man-made on population health.
• Discuss the four phases of disaster management.
• Discuss the role of the local and national disaster response agencies.