How the hospital context influences nurses' environmentally responsible practice: A focused ethnography

Aim: To describe ways in which a hospital context, physically and culturally, influences nurses' abilities to promote and engage with environmentally responsible practice.

Design: A focused ethnographic study.

Methods: Data were collected during May and August, 2019. Nurses (n = 22) working in the emergency room and three medicine units within a large Western Canadian hospital were invited to participate. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and observations were collected. Reporting is in accordance with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research.

Results: Three themes were identified: patient care not environmental care, organizational role and operational efficiency. Overall, participants indicated patient care was their primary priority, and due to their workload, they were unable to simultaneously consider the environmental impact of their work. Participants stated they had difficulties practicing in environmentally responsible ways because they felt unsupported by their hospital organization. Regardless, there was a desire for the organization to support environmentally responsible practices.

Conclusion: Climate change is a major health concern, and partnership between hospitals and nurses is necessary to ensure environmentally responsible healthcare is delivered. We suggest both a top-down and bottom-up approach to help develop hospital contexts that are relevant and environmentally responsible.

Impact: Nurses have a professional responsibility to address climate change, yet this study identified that nurses found it challenging to practice in environmentally responsible ways within the hospital context. Challenges they faced are related to their workload, their misaligned nursing priorities and, more importantly, because they felt unsupported by their hospital. Findings are important to both the nursing profession as well as other hospital leaders so that a culture of environmentally responsible healthcare can be developed within hospitals.