Preventing harm from happening

At the end of January, my husband took a bike ride wearing shorts. Minnesota-January-shorts! How will Minnesota’s abnormal winter impact the upcoming summer? This question reflects systems and complexity, a core domain of planetary health knowledge.

The School of Nursing’s Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice is committed to teaching and studying the five core domains of planetary health. These include Interconnection Within Nature, the Anthropocene and Health, Equity and Social Justice, Systems Thinking and Complexity, and Movement Building and Systems Change. Learn more about the framework at planetaryhealthalliance.org.

Systems thinking means we recognize that changes have consequences. Very little or no snow can adversely affect farmers and impact water levels in rivers and lakes. Plants may bloom earlier and that can impact the behaviors of birds, insects and other pollinators. Everything is interconnected in one remarkable complex system. Change one part of the system and the rest of the system often responds in unexpected ways.

What do these changes have to do with nursing? Everything! Humans are embedded in the ecosystem, and what happens to one part of the system, impacts all parts of the system. This year we may need to be prepared for a warmer and drier summer, more wildfires, and more bugs. Even though it is May, we need to be teaching people about how to track air quality, the need to stay well-hydrated, and how to dress to avoid mosquitos and ticks.

Nursing is at its best when we prevent harm from happening. Humans are disrupting the Earth’s natural systems and as complex changes occur, the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice will be ready to inform, prepare, and protect human health and safeguard the wellbeing of future generations.