Shaner-McRae Hollie, McRae Glenn, Jas Victoria
Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont, USA.
Online J Issues Nurs. 2007 May 31;12(2):1.
Florence Nightingale and subsequent nurse scholars have written about the impact of the environment on human health. Nightingale described, and staked out, the nurse's role in optimizing environments for healing. Since Nightingale's time numerous scholars have documented that environmental conditions play a major role in the health of individuals and populations. As nurses become more informed about the environment as a determinant of human health, they will be able to advocate more effectively for environmental conditions that promote health. This article provides both theoretical and practical perspectives to integrate environmental concerns into nursing practice. It recommends specific actions nurses can undertake to improve the environment within the health care setting. In particular the article provides a historical review of an environmental focus in nursing, discusses ways to manage both upstream waste and downstream waste (solid, biohazard, and hazardous chemical wastes) so as to decrease environmental pollution, and recommends specific nursing actions to promote a healthy environment within our health care agencies.
弗洛伦斯·南丁格尔及后来的护理学者都曾著述论述环境对人类健康的影响。南丁格尔阐述并明确了护士在优化康复环境方面的作用。自南丁格尔时代以来，众多学者都记录表明，环境状况在个人和人群的健康中起着主要作用。随着护士对作为人类健康决定因素的环境有了更多了解，他们将能够更有效地倡导有利于健康的环境条件。本文提供了理论和实践视角，以将环境问题纳入护理实践。它推荐了护士可以采取的具体行动，以改善医疗保健环境。特别是，本文对护理中以环境为重点进行了历史回顾，讨论了管理上游废物和下游废物（固体、生物危害和危险化学废物）以减少环境污染的方法，并推荐了在我们的医疗保健机构内促进健康环境的具体护理行动。
