The Role of Nurses in Environmental Health

The Role of Nurses in Environmental Health
Introduction
The primary focus of environmental health is the relationships between humans and their surroundings. The understanding of the factors that relate to environmental health is an important field in health care delivery. According to the American Public Health Association (2017), knowledge about environmental health is used in improving the health and wellbeing of humans. Through this knowledge, public health officials and other professionals are in a position to understand environmental factors that impede or improve health. As such, it is through the systems of environmental health that clinicians, epidemiologists, and other professionals can understand disease-causing factors, calamities, and human practices that can be improved to eliminate hazards. Based on this understanding, the following paper will explore the factors that affect health and the roles of nurses in improving or eliminating environmental barriers to health.
Environmental Factors that Impact Health
Environmental factors have different implications for the health of humans. The effects can be both positive and negative. For example, the type of housing is an environmental factor that can influence the health status of the inhabitants. For instance, it can act as a hazard or a health-improving component (Granbom, Iwarsson, Kylberg, Pettersson, & Slaug, 2016). Positive environmental factors are those associated with promoting the well-being of humans. These factors predispose people to good living conditions and practices that prevent disease-causing agents (Granbom et al., 2016). Examples of the positive environmental factors that improve health include the presence of safe water, protection from harmful UV, surroundings with good sanitation, proper nutrition, good housing, clean water, and unpopulated air.
On the other hand, there are negative environmental factors that are hazards to health. These are the factors that increase the vulnerability of people to infections and physical injury. For instance, some of the factors that lead to infections are surroundings that favor reproduction and growth of disease-causing vectors which may be endemic or exotic. A case in point, environments with poor sanitation can harbor invasive biotas such as harmful bacteria and viruses. Also, natural calamities like disruptions of the human-environment balance by droughts, floods, storms, and earthquakes are some of the environmental factors with a negative impact on health (Warren, Walker Jr, & Nathan, 2002). Besides, there are human practices that create conditions that favor diseases such as activities leading to the pollution of the surroundings, poor housing, sanitation, and nutrition.
Role of a Nurse in Improving/Eliminating Environmental Barriers to Health
The environmental barriers to health are the negative factors that can lead to diseases or injuries. This normally takes place if there is sustainable exposure to agents that cause diseases or alter the existing balance in the environment. As noted, the knowledge about environmental health factors is integral to the diagnosis, treatment, and planning of interventions. It is, therefore, the mandate of nurses to interrogate the root cause of a disease to help in designing prevention measures. As it has repeatedly been saying, “prevention is better than cure.” However, it is worth noting that not all illnesses have environmental etiology. In the healthcare system, the American Nurse Association (ANA) stipulates that nurses have restorative, supportive, and promotive roles. This implies that they have a mandate in every stage of health care provision, i.e. curative and preventive. Therefore, the measures required to address the factors that affect health are within their scope.
First, a nurse has a role in improving or eliminating an environmental barrier to health by working as an investigator who liaises with the policymakers and implementers. Today, environmental health threats have been on the increase. Various factors have been attributed to threats such as personal and environmental practices. It is important to note that environmental factors are correlated with morbidity and mortality. As a result, there is a need for health professionals, policymakers, and other health stakeholders to know the role of the environmental factors in disease causation and prevention. This should form the basis of planning for the delivery of healthcare. For example, it is through a better understanding of health components associated with environmental health that nurses can develop better diagnoses which are imperative in the treatment of various infections. The alertness to the factors gives physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals the clues to the treatment and better utilization of health services (The National Academic Press, 2017). For instance, in the course of