Reframing Nursing's Response to Climate Change: A Planetary Perspective

Abstract

The metaparadigm of nursing, global health, and climate change this essay provides a theoretical analysis of the reasons behind the nursing profession's tardiness in addressing the climate change issue. We propose that the early stages of the professionalization of nursing may have had an impact on this delay. We specifically look at the metaparadigm that is widely accepted, the professional mandate for nurses, and the grand theorists' conceptions of the environment and the nurse-environment interaction. We come to the conclusion that these works may have influenced nurses to understand the environment and their relationship with it primarily in terms of the specific patient, which has prevented nurses from being pushed to understand these notions from a wider angle. It is not unexpected that nurses have been slow to respond to climate change and may not have considered it a professional concern because they lack the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings necessary to comprehend the environment in connection to society. Theoretically, nursing education, research, and practice might be grounded in a planetary health viewpoint. By adopting a planetary health viewpoint, nurses may advance their field and help healthcare systems support a future that is climate resilient.