Nursing's Climate Mandate: How Education Can Drive a Healthier Planet
"Equipping nurses with climate change knowledge is no longer optional—it's essential for safeguarding public health in a rapidly changing world."
The intensifying health impacts of global climate change demand an immediate and comprehensive response from the nursing profession. Nurses, as frontline healthcare providers and trusted community figures, are uniquely positioned to lead this charge. This article examines the growing imperative for climate action, scrutinizes the integration of climate change education in nursing programs, and offers actionable recommendations to bridge the knowledge gap.
Calls to action from leading healthcare organizations and scientific bodies underscore the urgency of preparing nurses to address climate-related health threats. These calls span practice, research, advocacy, and, critically, education. Equipping nurses with the skills to influence policy, promote sustainable practices, and provide informed care is paramount. A critical piece of the solution involves expanding nursing's ability to act through comprehensive climate change education, which is the focus of this article.
We will explore the current status of climate change education within nursing, identify key challenges, and propose an Ecological Planetary Health Model as a guiding framework. This model emphasizes the interconnectedness of human health and the environment, promoting a holistic approach to nursing education that considers political, cultural, social, and economic factors. Finally, we present ten broad recommendations to guide curriculum design and empower nurses to become effective agents of change.
Approaches and Gaps in Climate Education
A 2024 scoping review identified varied strategies for climate change education in nursing, spanning teaching methods, curriculum content, and innovative teaching approaches. Another scoping review examined climate change integration in academic curricula and nurses’ continuing education, with the aim of identifying issues and opportunities. A 2026 systematic review reports that awareness is growing, but curricula remain inconsistent and institutional support limited; it calls for structured integration and comprehensive curriculum reform. Nursing education is also described as needing to prepare students for climate-related effects, while nursing’s role in responding through practice, research, and training is still characterized as needing a pragmatic foundation.
Milestones for Curricular Integration
A study titled “Nursing education for climate change: historical milestones” analyzes historical and conceptual milestones supporting nursing education on climate change. It aligns this work with Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, and 13 and proposes pedagogical axes for curricular integration. The study reports identifying five specific pedagogical axes. Its abstract also describes Freire’s methodologies as a foundation for critical and emancipatory nursing education, promoting awareness of socio-environmental determinants of health and capacity for climate-justice advocacy with vulnerable populations.
Why Climate Education Matters for Nurses: Understanding the Risks
The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have made it clear that the health effects of climate change are not a distant threat—they're already here and are expected to worsen. Extreme weather events, altered disease vectors, and air and water quality degradation disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, exacerbating existing health inequities. Nurses must understand these risks to provide effective and equitable care.
- Respiratory Illnesses: Increased air pollution and pollen seasons worsen asthma and other respiratory conditions.
- Heat-Related Illnesses: Extreme heat events pose significant risks to older adults, children, and those with chronic diseases.
- Waterborne Diseases: Flooding and altered water supplies increase the risk of diarrheal diseases and other waterborne illnesses.
- Vector-Borne Diseases: Changing temperatures and precipitation patterns expand the range of mosquitoes and ticks, increasing the risk of diseases like Lyme disease and Zika virus.
- Food Security: Droughts and extreme weather events disrupt food production, leading to malnutrition and food insecurity, especially in vulnerable communities.
Frameworks and Recommendations
A narrative review of nursing associations’ recommendations identifies the Ecological Planetary Health Model, proposed by Leffers et al. (2017), as a possible framework for including climate change education in nursing curricula and professional education. Research on nurse educators’ perceptions of ecoliteracy also suggests the model as a potential guide for curriculum integration and future research. A 2025 review discusses how nursing education can contribute to the United Nations’ climate action objectives and offers practical recommendations for educators preparing nurses to lead on climate change and advocacy. Another review calls for integrating climate change and sustainable development into nursing education and practice, while identifying faculty awareness and overloaded curricula as barriers.
Persistent Gaps in Integration
A review of nursing’s role in addressing climate change and sustainable development finds gaps in how these topics are represented in curricula and practice. It examines their integration into education and presents related recommendations. The review frames integration as important while indicating that existing coverage remains incomplete. Its findings point to a need for more consistent attention to climate change and sustainable development in nursing education and practice.
Empowering Nurses for a Sustainable Future
The time for incremental change has passed. Nursing education must evolve to meet the demands of a climate-changed world. By integrating climate change into curricula, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and empowering nurses to become advocates for environmental health, we can equip the next generation of healthcare leaders to build a more sustainable and equitable future.
Curriculum and Continuing-Education Challenges
A study of climate change integration in nursing education considers both academic curricula—from undergraduate to postgraduate programs—and continuing education, including hospital-led programs, workshops, and courses offered by nursing organizations. Its results are grouped around teaching methods and educational content, challenges to integration, and authors’ recommendations. The scope reflects that climate education must be addressed across educational settings, not only in initial academic programs. The source identifies integration challenges as a central topic but does not specify their details in the provided material.
Connecting Planetary and Human Health
The article “Mandate for the Nursing Profession to Address Climate Change Through Nursing Education” concludes that an ecological framework is valuable for climate change education in nursing. It emphasizes considering political, cultural, economic, and environmental interrelationships in relation to human health and the health of the planet. A 2025 review reports that studies of climate change integration in nursing curricula and continuing education focus on both the theoretical content to teach and the teaching interventions suited to developing climate-related knowledge and competencies. Together, these sources connect educational choices with nurses’ understanding of human and planetary health.
The Ecological Planetary Health Model offers a valuable framework for this transformation, emphasizing the interconnectedness of human health and the environment. This approach encourages nurses to consider the broader social, economic, and political factors that influence health outcomes and to advocate for policies that promote both human and planetary well-being.
Nurses must be competent practitioners, advocates, and change agents to ensure the public's health in the face of climate threats. It is critical to address political, social, cultural, economic, and environmental interrelationships on human health and the health of the planet. The recommendations in this article offer a starting point for nursing organizations, educational programs, and practice settings to integrate climate change content into nursing education, ensuring a healthier future for all.