Developing the concept of sustainability in nursing

Planetary Health in Nursing: A Scoping Review

AIM

To map the extent of the use of the term 'planetary health' in peer-reviewed nursing literature.

DESIGN

Scoping Review.

DATA SOURCES

CINAHL, ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Premium, MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses and Web of Science were searched in January and February 2024 for English and French-language publications. A follow-up search was conducted on 10 June 2024 to determine if additional literature was published.

REVIEW METHODS

A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley methodology for scoping reviews. To be included the article had to explicitly use the term 'planetary health' and 'nursing' or 'nurses'.

RESULTS

Sixty-eight articles met the criteria for the scoping review and were included in this review, with the majority published between 2017 and 2024. Predominant literature included discussion papers, commentaries and editorials. A lack of original research is apparent. Most of the publications were calls to action for nurses to advance planetary health in nursing education, practice, research and advocacy work.

CONCLUSIONS

Literature confirms that planetary health is a recent and an important topic in nursing, and nurses have a well-documented role to play in planetary health, given the numerous calls to action in nursing leadership, education, practice and research. There is a need to publish the essential work nurses are doing in planetary health in various nursing domains.

IMPACT

This scoping review revealed a clear and urgent call to action for nurses to address planetary health. Given this finding, nurses have a responsibility to advocate for a planetary health approach in the profession and take action to contribute to planetary health through education, research, practice and advocacy.

NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Not applicable, as no patients or public were involved.

Nursing Education for Sustainable Development: A Concept Analysis

BACKGROUND

Sustainability represents an increasingly vital yet inconsistently implemented topic in nursing education. Formal concept analysis can promote unified conceptualisation to inform sustainability integration in nursing curriculums.

OBJECTIVE

Analyse the concept of 'nursing education for sustainable development' using the Walker and Avant framework to clarify meaning and application in nursing programmes.

METHOD

The literature was systematically searched for attributes, antecedents and consequences used to formulate a concept definition, and compared to existing conceptualisations.

RESULTS

Core concept attributes are interconnectedness of human/ecological health, sustainability-focused curriculums, competency cultivation and social justice orientations. Antecedents include recognising ecological determinants of health and committed nursing faculty. Consequences encompass the preparation of sustainability-competent nurses and elevated nursing contributions to sustainable health systems.

CONCLUSION

The concept analysis provides an original synthesised perspective advancing coherence and applicability to guide sustainability education in nursing programmes through a translational framework for competency, curriculum design and content delivery approaches.

REPORTING METHOD

We followed the guidelines outlined in the Walker and Avant framework in the conduct and reporting of this paper.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient and public contribution.

Validation of the Spanish Version of the Questionnaire on Environmental Awareness in Nursing (NEAT)

Environmental awareness of the ecological problems caused by this climate crisis and its impact on global health has been growing globally. Nurses are health care agents that usually hurt the environment and contribute to the unsustainability of the care system. Such behavior is perpetuated without the nurses’ awareness and is even magnified by the current pandemic, jeopardizing the health systems and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is no Spanish version of any survey that measures the awareness of these agents, only the Nurses Environmental Awareness Tool (NEAT) is available. The current research presents a unique investigation based on a mixed method, using the Spanish version of the NEAT, also called NEAT-es. The results of the mixed analysis (N = 376), a cognitive interview, and descriptive analysis indicated perfect consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.80), better than the original. The survey validation achieved higher values and can be used to measure environmental awareness in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries.

The Concepts of Social Space and Social Value: An Interpretation of Clinical Nursing Practice in Vietnam Các khái niệm về không gian xã hội và giá trị xã hội: diễn giải về thực hành điều dưỡng lâm sàng ở Việt Nam

This research draws on broader inquiry that explores the construction of the spatial positioning of nurses in Vietnam and how power structures sustained that positioning. Observations and individual interviews were undertaken with 32 registered nurses. Analysis of participant data and relevant policy documents moved beyond coding to theorising and thus to the abstraction of key concepts. Social space and social value were significant concepts developed in the research. The concept of space reflected the ways in which nurses constantly engaged in processes of negotiation to embed a sense of control over their practice. The related concept of social value brought focus to a power structure whereby the fiscal priorities of health care managers reinforced a disconnect between the use and exchange values of nurses. An interpretation of power relations that underpinned the material and symbolic spaces in which nurses worked was framed within the historical context of Vietnam.

Tóm lưược

Bài báo này dựa trên nghiên cứu với qui mô lớn hơn nhằm tìm hiểu vị thế của nghành điều dưỡng tại Việt Nam. Phương pháp quan sát và phỏng vấn cá nhân được thực hiện với 32 nhân viên điều dưỡng làm việc tại tám khoa của một bệnh viện ở Việt Nam. Việc phân tích dữ liệu của người tham gia và các tài liệu về chính sách liên quan đã vượt ra khỏi phạm vi mã hóa dữ liệu đơn thuần, mở rộng sang học thuyết và chuyển sang trừu tượng hóa các khái niệm chính. Không gian xã hội và giá trị xã hội là những khái niệm quan trọng được phát triển trong nghiên cứu này. Khái niệm về không gian phản ánh cách thức mà các nhân viên điều dưỡng liên tục tham gia vào các quá trình thương lượng để kiểm soát được việc thực hành của họ. Khái niệm liên quan về giá trị xã hội tập trung vào cơ cấu quyền lực, theo đó ưu tiên tài chính của các nhà quản lý chăm sóc sức khỏe góp phần làm gián đoạn mối liên kết giữa giá trị sử dụng và giá trị trao đổi mà ngành điều dưỡng mang lại. Lý giải về các mối quan hệ quyền lực đã được củng cố trong không gian thực và không gian mang tính biểu tượng nơi các điều dưỡng làm việc, được định hình trong bối cảnh lịch sử của Việt Nam.

Current trends in global nursing: A scoping review

Aim

This review aimed to elucidate research trends in global nursing in international literature.

Design

A scoping literature review of the PRISMA was used to guide the review.

Methods

PubMed was used to search for English articles published in academic journals between 2016–2018. The search keywords were “global/international/world nursing.” We used thematic synthesis to analyse and interpret the data and generated topics for global nursing literature.

Results

In total, 133 articles were analysed. Six topics emerged: (a) conceptualization of global nursing, (b) environmental health, (c) infectious diseases, (d) security efforts, (e) global shortage of nursing personnel and (f) diversification of study abroad programmes. The results of this review reflect today's serious international health, labour and global environmental issues. Based on these latest global nursing topics, it is necessary to develop new strategies, nursing models and environment‐related theories to create and maintain a healthy environment.

Nursing is never neutral: Political determinants of health and systemic marginalization

The nursing community in the United States polarized in September 2020 between Dawn Wooten's whistleblowing about forced hysterectomies at an immigration center in Georgia and the American Nurses Association's refusal to endorse a presidential candidate despite the Trump administration's mounting failures to address the public health crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This reveals a need for more attention to political aspects of health outcome inequities. As advocates for health equity, nurses can join in recent scholarship and activism concerning the political determinants of health. In this paper, we examine recent work on the political determinants of health with an aim to add two things. First, we seek to build further on the notion of "political" determinants of health by distinguishing policy and governance structures from dynamics of politicization through appeal to critical disabilities studies. Second, we seek to apply this further nuanced approach to challenge rhetorical uses of "vulnerable populations," where this phrase serves to misrecognize systemic institutionalized forces that actively exploit and marginalize people and groups. By refocusing attention to political systems organized around and perpetuating inequitable health outcomes, nurses and other health care professionals-as well as those whom they serve-can concentrate their effort and power to act on political determinants of health in bringing about more equitable health outcomes.

Norm-Critical Potential in Undergraduate Nursing Education Curricula: A Document Analysis

The documents and literature that regulate nursing education are based on certain values and knowledge, and the underlying power in the curriculum raises the question of how health care professionals are molded during the course of their education. Norm criticism is a concept with its roots in critical pedagogy and gender and queer studies, emphasizing the origins as well as the consequences of marginalization, power, and knowledge of what is generally accepted as "normal" and "true." Norm criticism is used in this article to analyze the documents and literature underlying a nursing program in Sweden, which are shown to include a sometimes politically correct rhetoric, but one lacking a firm basis in social justice values.

A Theoretical Framework for Emancipatory Nursing With a Focus on Environment and Persons' Own and Shared Lifeworld

By giving a brief overview of the metaconcepts in nursing, with a focus on environment, we sketch a theoretical framework for an emancipatory perspective in nursing care practice. To meet the requirements of equality in care and treatment, we have in our theoretical framework added a critical lifeworld perspective to the antioppressive practice, to meet requirements of equity in health care encounter. The proposed model of emancipatory nursing goes from overall ideological structures to ontological aspects of the everyday world. Based on the model, nurses could identify what kind of theoretical critical knowledge and thinking they require to conduct equal care and encounter the person behind the patient role.

Family members' experiences of waiting in intensive care: a concept analysis

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore the meaning of family members' experience of waiting in an intensive care context using Rodgers' evolutionary method of concept analysis.

METHOD

Systematic searches in CINAHL and PubMed retrieved 38 articles which illustrated the waiting experienced by family members in an intensive care context. Rodgers' evolutionary method of concept analysis was applied to the data.

FINDINGS

In total, five elements of the concept were identified in the analysis. These were as follows: living in limbo; feeling helpless and powerless; hoping; enduring; and fearing the worst. Family members' vigilance regarding their relative proved to be a related concept, but vigilance does not share the same set of attributes. The consequences of waiting were often negative for the relatives and caused them suffering. The references show that the concept was manifested in different situations and in intensive care units (ICUs) with various types of specialties.

CONCLUSIONS

The application of concept analysis has brought a deeper understanding and meaning to the experience of waiting among family members in an intensive care context. This may provide professionals with an awareness of how to take care of family members in this situation. The waiting is inevitable, but improved communication between the ICU staff and family members is necessary to reduce stress and alleviate the suffering of family members. It is important to acknowledge that waiting cannot be eliminated but family-centred care, including a friendly and welcoming hospital environment, can ease the burden of family members with a loved one in an ICU.