After reading this rich review of current environmental health nursing scholarship, one may ask, how can our profession advance this work? How can we support our scientists, deepen nurses' knowledge about environmental health, advocate to reduce risk to health from environmentally mediated threats, and to reduce environmental harm generated from our own practice? Opportunities to strengthen environmental health nursing research include creating and supporting environmentally focused special interest groups at our regional meetings, identifying and nurturing young or beginning scholars, and sharing findings through traditional routes such as conferences and publications, but also through content-specific opportunities such as webinars, professional organizations, and even social media. Education about environmental health nursing needs to be strengthened in our formal professional preparation programs. In addition, knowledge can be shared in less formal ways including webinars, conferences, podcasts, and working groups. Advocacy for environmental health is an ongoing need, and nurses are in excellent positions to speak with authority and evidence. Opportunities for nurses to speak out can be encouraged in undergraduate and graduate programs, through professional organizations, and through opportunities to learn and practice lobbying and other forms of advocacy. The majority of nurses in the United States practice in acute care, and acute care is polluting. Nurses have many opportunities to get involved with developing and utilizing environmentally safe and healthy practices. They can serve locally on green teams, do evidence-based projects or research studies, and take on quality improvement projects that enhance processes and often save money. We hope that this edition of the Annual Review of Nursing Research will offer opportunities for education, and further, that it will spur ideas and solutions as nurses take seriously numerous environmental threats to human health.
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