Nursing Theory in the Quest for the Sustainable Development Goals

The environmental awareness of nurses as environmentally sustainable health care leaders: a mixed method analysis

BACKGROUND

People worldwide are concerned with the possibility of climate change, microplastics, air pollution, and extreme weather affecting human health. Countries are implementing measures to reduce environmental impacts. Nurses play a vital role, primarily through Green Teams, in the process of promoting sustainable practices and minimizing the environmental footprint of health care facilities. Despite existing knowledge on this topic, assessing nurses' environmental awareness and behavior, including the barriers they face, is crucial with regard to improving sustainable health care practices.

AIM

To analyze the environmental awareness and behavior of nurses, especially nurse leaders, as members of the Green Team and to identify areas for improvement with regard to the creation of a sustainable environment.

METHODS

A sequential mixed-method study was conducted to investigate Spanish nurses. The study utilized an online survey and interviews, including participant observation. An online survey was administered to collect quantitative data regarding environmental awareness and behavior. Qualitative interviews were conducted with environmental nurses in specific regions, with a focus on Andalusia, Spain.

RESULTS

Most of the surveyed nurses (N = 314) exhibited moderate environmental awareness (70.4%), but their environmental behavior and activities in the workplace were limited (52.23% of participants rarely performed relevant actions, and 35.03% indicated that doing so was difficult). Nurses who exhibited higher levels of environmental awareness were more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors such as waste reduction, energy conservation, and environmentally conscious purchasing decisions (p < 0.05). Additionally, the adjusted model indicated that nurses' environmental behavior and activities in the workplace depend on the frequency of their environmental behaviors outside work as well as their sustainable knowledge (p < 0.01). The results of the qualitative study (N = 10) highlighted certain limitations in their daily practices related to environmental sustainability, including a lack of time, a lack of bins and the pandemic. Additionally, sustainable environmental behavior on the part of nursing leadership and the Green Team must be improved.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed that most nurses have adequate knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to environmental sustainability both inside and outside the workplace. Limitations were associated with their knowledge and behaviors outside of work. This study also highlighted the barriers and difficulties that nurses face in their attempts to engage in adequate environmental behaviors in the workplace. Based on these findings, interventions led by nurses and the Green Team should be developed to promote sustainable behaviors among nurses and address the barriers and limitations identified in this research.

A complex intervention to support breastfeeding: A feasibility and acceptability study

AIMS

The aims of this study are to assess the acceptability and feasibility of a multicomponent intervention to support breastfeeding women and their families and explore its effectiveness.

METHODS

A pilot study with control and intervention groups was conducted using the complex intervention framework in two primary healthcare centres. Overall, 44 childbearing women, their partners/relatives and 20 healthcare professionals participated in the study. The intervention's feasibility and acceptability were measured. The percentage of exclusive breastfeeding rates and women's self-efficacy were measured at pre-intervention, at 10 days postpartum, and again at 2, 4 and 6 months postpartum. Postpartum depression risk was measured at 2 and 6 months postpartum. Professional self-efficacy was measured at pre-intervention and 3 months later.

RESULTS

The intervention was feasible and acceptable. No difference in self-efficacy existed between the intervention and control groups. Preliminary effects of the intervention were found in exclusive breastfeeding percentage and postpartum depression risk in the intervention group.

CONCLUSION

The intervention is feasible and acceptable. The results are promising not only for breastfeeding maintenance but also for preventing postpartum depression and recovering exclusive breastfeeding during pandemics.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03944642.

How Advanced Practice Holistic Nurses Meet International Criteria for Advanced Practice

Much has been written about the inclusion of holistic nursing philosophy and practices in undergraduate nursing education, but their inclusion and influence in advanced practice nursing education have not been fully explored. Supporting a holistic paradigm and model of care founded on evidenced-based clinical theory allows for expanded nursing practice and health care options for patients. Holistic nursing aligns with culturally competent, patient-centered care and is consistent with how our current health care landscape has evolved in recent years. Health care reform highlights a new direction in practice toward self-transformation, accountability, natural treatment options, and a patient's active role in health care decisions. To demonstrate the role, this article will address how advanced practice holistic nurses meet the International Council of Nurses Criteria for Advanced Practice and is substantially equivalent and exceeds current APRN competencies.

A Philosophical Review of School Nursing Framed by the Holistic Nursing Theory of Barbara Dossey

This article is a philosophical review of school nursing and its constructs framed by Barbara Dossey's holistic nursing theory. The author describes the application of holistic nursing theory within the school nurse's area of activity. The review suggests that holistic nursing theory can be applied in several areas of school nursing. School nurses have a multifaceted occupation that includes meetings with students, parents, and school staff. Barbara Dossey's holistic nursing theory offers the school nurse tools to deal with people's varied experiences, feelings, and needs.

COVID-19 reveals the urgent need to strengthen nursing informatics competencies: a view from Peru

The COVID-19 pandemic requires an urgent action to transform health-care delivery and to promote research and capacity-building nursing programs. Specifically, many countries at the global level have described nursing informatics as an essential competence for nurse professionals. In Peru, nursing personnel represents the largest health workforce group and nursing informatics is still emerging, but the field appear to hold much promise. In this sense, the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MoH) defined in 2020 the core nursing competences, which included a technology and innovation domain. The competence established to apply scientifically based technology and innovation to improve the processes or health service resources. The minimum competencies established by the MoH were as follows: to carry out innovations in processes or resources in their different professional performance areas, to creatively adapt technology in different areas of professional performance, to make rational and ethical use of health technologies with focus on new developments that will be evaluated and applied critically, and to manage information and communication technologies, and health information systems, with emphasis on telehealth (i.e. telemedicine, telecare management, tele-education, and tele-training). Besides the nursing competences defined by the MoH is a good starting point, this special contribution discusses the urgent need to strengthen nursing informatics competencies in Peru.

ACADEMIC GRADUATE PROGRAM IN NURSING AT UFSC: TECHNOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS

ABSTRACT Objective: to discuss the different impacts - technological, political, social and economic - of Graduate Program in Nursing at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, problematizing their indicators and their adequacy to the field of Nursing and Health, according to the genesis and nature of Nursing care, the Nursing science and its interfaces with other fields of knowledge. Method: a study conducted in July 2021 based on documentary sources extracted from an institutional form, for evaluating graduates and annual reports of the Program in the period between 2011 and 2020. The documentary data were submitted to descriptive analysis. Results: the technological, political, social and economic impacts and their respective indicators are presented as proposed by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel for the evaluation of graduate programs. The evaluation of the impacts of graduate education in Nursing indicated that it represents a challenge to be faced, given the difficulties identifying quantitative and qualitative evidence allowing such verification. Conclusion: important impacts of the Program are evidenced; however, the indicators and respective criteria are questioned regarding the best adequacy and completeness to the field of Nursing and Health, according to the genesis and nature of Nursing care, the Nursing science and interfaces with the other fields of knowledge. Therefore, it is urgent to invest in studies and to propose indicators and criteria to evidence the real impact of the Graduate Programs in Nursing on society.

European Nursing Council Code for European nursing and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

A code of ethics for the practice of nursing seeks to capture, in a written document, the normative values, ethical principles and standards of good care to guide nurses - qua moral agents. A codification of the accepted collective values of nursing can play a constitutional and directional role for the profession. It can further stimulate discussions about nursing that reflect the dynamic essence of the profession. Consequently, there is merit to continually reflecting on a code's function and role especially when a new or revised code is introduced to the nursing profession and the wider public such as the European Nursing Council's Code of Ethics and Conduct for European Nursing. This paper examines codes of ethics in general and the European Nursing Council Code in particular using the framework of Gaumnitz and Lere. Although the European Nursing Council Code has all the ingredients of a contemporary professional ethics code, our position is that future iterations or addenda to this Code should be aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and take a more radical step in becoming an exemplar of a nursing code that can be a catalyst for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals.