Location
Virtual
Start Date
1-3-2024 10:30 AM
End Date
1-3-2024 10:45 AM
Keywords:
washington; montana; sph; missoula; swedish; prmc; everett
Description
Background: Air pollution, medical waste, and climate change are a threat to our health and environmental sustainability. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that annually, 7 million premature deaths are associated with climate change, making climate change this century’s greatest threat to health. The healthcare industry negatively impacts climate change through the production of approximately 5% of all global carbon emissions. However, little is understood about relationships between healthcare professionals' concern for the environment and behaviors at home or work to protect climate health.
Purpose: To test relationships between healthcare professionals' concern for the environment and behaviors at home or work to protect climate health.
Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted of a cross-sectional, electronic survey-based study using the valid and reliable Climate and Health Tool (CHANT). Licensed and registered healthcare staff working across the large healthcare system were eligible to participate. Staff were recruited via work emails with embedded links to the survey, flyers with quick read (QR) codes placed in staff-specific areas, live rounding on units and workplace councils, who shared flyers with members. Snowballing techniques were encouraged for all methods. The CHANT subscales considered in this analysis include: 1) concern for environment, 2) climate-preserving behaviors at home, and 3) climate-preserving behaviors at work. Each subscale consists of between 4 to 5 Likert-type items. Scores are tabulated from a range of 0 to 20 (concern for environment and behaviors at home) or 0 to 16 (behaviors at work) with higher scores indicating higher engagement or concern with climate health. A Spearman’s correlation test was conducted in SPSS v.29 to test for relationships.
Results: A total of 930 respondents had data included in this early analysis of findings. Average subscale scores for concern for environment and behaviors at home and work to preserve climate health were 14.6±5.3, 11.9±3.7, and 6.0±3.6, respectively. Significant positive relationships were demonstrated between concern for the environment and behaviors at home (rho=0.33, p<0.01) and at work (rho=0.21, p<0.01) to preserve climate health. Age was found to weakly and positively correlate with both behavior scores (p<0.01) but not with concern for the environment (rho=-0.04, p=0.29).
Conclusions: Most study participants expressed concern for the environment spread equally across age demographics. Older age was related to engaging in more behaviors at work and home to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Roughly half of respondents regularly engaged in behaviors at home and at work to reduce GHG emissions (I.e. turning off lights to conserve energy). Further research uncovering motivators and barriers is warranted to inform strategies to increase behaviors to protect climate health among healthcare professionals.
Implications for Practice: Results from this study indicate that concern for the environment is associated with more engagement in behaviors at work and home to preserve climate health. Every individual can act to reduce the human carbon footprint on the earth and improve climate health for all. Therefore, healthcare leaders should prioritize raising healthcare providers’ awareness of actions to promote climate health and remove barriers to implementing these behaviors at work.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Sarah; Kelly, Mary Jo; Springer, Gale; and Rangel, Teresa, "Health Professional Concern for Environment and Behaviors to Protect Climate Health" (2024). Providence Nursing Research Conference 2023 – Present. 15.
https://digitalcommons.providence.org/prov_rn_conf_annual/2024/podiums/15
Specialty/Research Institute
Environmental Stewardship
Specialty/Research Institute
Nursing
Health Professional Concern for Environment and Behaviors to Protect Climate Health
Virtual
Background: Air pollution, medical waste, and climate change are a threat to our health and environmental sustainability. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that annually, 7 million premature deaths are associated with climate change, making climate change this century’s greatest threat to health. The healthcare industry negatively impacts climate change through the production of approximately 5% of all global carbon emissions. However, little is understood about relationships between healthcare professionals' concern for the environment and behaviors at home or work to protect climate health.
Purpose: To test relationships between healthcare professionals' concern for the environment and behaviors at home or work to protect climate health.
Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted of a cross-sectional, electronic survey-based study using the valid and reliable Climate and Health Tool (CHANT). Licensed and registered healthcare staff working across the large healthcare system were eligible to participate. Staff were recruited via work emails with embedded links to the survey, flyers with quick read (QR) codes placed in staff-specific areas, live rounding on units and workplace councils, who shared flyers with members. Snowballing techniques were encouraged for all methods. The CHANT subscales considered in this analysis include: 1) concern for environment, 2) climate-preserving behaviors at home, and 3) climate-preserving behaviors at work. Each subscale consists of between 4 to 5 Likert-type items. Scores are tabulated from a range of 0 to 20 (concern for environment and behaviors at home) or 0 to 16 (behaviors at work) with higher scores indicating higher engagement or concern with climate health. A Spearman’s correlation test was conducted in SPSS v.29 to test for relationships.
Results: A total of 930 respondents had data included in this early analysis of findings. Average subscale scores for concern for environment and behaviors at home and work to preserve climate health were 14.6±5.3, 11.9±3.7, and 6.0±3.6, respectively. Significant positive relationships were demonstrated between concern for the environment and behaviors at home (rho=0.33, p<0.01) and at work (rho=0.21, p<0.01) to preserve climate health. Age was found to weakly and positively correlate with both behavior scores (p<0.01) but not with concern for the environment (rho=-0.04, p=0.29).
Conclusions: Most study participants expressed concern for the environment spread equally across age demographics. Older age was related to engaging in more behaviors at work and home to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Roughly half of respondents regularly engaged in behaviors at home and at work to reduce GHG emissions (I.e. turning off lights to conserve energy). Further research uncovering motivators and barriers is warranted to inform strategies to increase behaviors to protect climate health among healthcare professionals.
Implications for Practice: Results from this study indicate that concern for the environment is associated with more engagement in behaviors at work and home to preserve climate health. Every individual can act to reduce the human carbon footprint on the earth and improve climate health for all. Therefore, healthcare leaders should prioritize raising healthcare providers’ awareness of actions to promote climate health and remove barriers to implementing these behaviors at work.
