Climate Change and Advocacy
By Ethan Slocum , 2024-2025 NSNA President
One of my favorite parts as NSNA president is getting to represent and advocate for the needs of students in settings where we may not always be present . On September 9-10 , 2024 , I attended the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments ’ ( ANHE ) Extreme Heat Meetings in Washington , D . C . on behalf of NSNA . The objective of these meetings was to bring awareness to the impending public health threat posed by extreme heat and climate change to both our current and future populations of nurses and patients .
NSNA was invited to this event , along with over 25 other nursing organizations including the American Nurses Association ( ANA ), National League for Nursing ( NLN ), National Black Nurses Association ( NBNA ), Association of periOperative Registered Nurses ( AORN ), and many others . We had the opportunity to meet with the Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity , the White House Council on Environmental Quality , and the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) to advocate for the needs of each organization ’ s respective bodies and patients .
You may ask how NSNA gets involved with these types of events . The answer is because of our students . Our students elevate the needs of our future workforce and patients through the resolutions process . Every resolution that is proposed and adopted into the House of Delegates becomes a NSNA policy and has no expiration . Each one of these policies is then acted on in accordance with their resolved statements and extrapolated upon to meet the needs of our students . So , through advocating on behalf of our students ’ climate change resolutions we have become involved with organizations like ANHE and are then able to act on their wishes for the future .
Specifically , during these meetings I referenced three past NSNA resolutions . These resolutions were : In Support of Increased Awareness and Assessment of Environmental Health Hazards in Nursing Education ( 2015 ), Increased Nursing Student Action on and Awareness of the Effects of Climate Change on Health ( 2017 ), and In Support of Increasing Awareness of the Effects of Climate Change on Mental Health ( 2019 ). These resolutions allowed me to speak on behalf of the needs of our students , specifically to advocate for increased education around awareness and assessment of environmental hazards , disaster
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