Introducing new nurse leadership roles through an educational framework to protect the planet and human health

Aims and objectives: This discussion paper proposes four new nursing leadership roles to address planetary health challenges.

Background: Nurses are essential in reducing healthcare's greenhouse emissions. The Planetary Health Education Framework (PHEF) supports integrating planetary health concepts into sustainable healthcare practice. Nurse educators with planetary health expertise should teach the PHEF, while nurse climate advocates promote it to health professionals, with nurse-led planetary health researchers undertaking climate-change research and Planetary Health Nurse Practitioners practicing sustainable healthcare.

Design: Discussion paper.

Data sources: A PICO framework was used to identify relevant articles: In nursing (P) should new roles be introduced (I) compared to no new roles (C) to understand climate change impacts on both nursing and planetary health (O).

Discussion: Barriers to sustainable healthcare include denial, group-think, and ignorance. National and International organisation enablers highlight the importance of climate change in nurse education. The Australian College of Nursing recommends government funding for nurse-led planetary health research.

Conclusion: Educators should focus on curricula development, nurse climate advocates on education and policy, researchers on supporting planetary health research, and PHNPs on climate justice, environmental protection, and emissions reduction.