At Southwestern Oklahoma State University we have introduced an elective course for senior nursing students that introduce them to concepts of climate change and the challenges they will face when they begin their nursing practices. As climate change shifts eco-regions further and further north diseases that were often limited to areas south of Oklahoma or even only to tropical areas, maybe seen in increasing frequency by nurses in emergency departments across the state. These diseases will be the result of vectors not being killed by colder temperatures during the winter months and new vectors becoming more prevalent as the predicted warmer temperature are the norm. Exposing the health care students to the ideas of climate change and the associated disciplines of disease ecology, environmental toxicology, and pollution of water and air will be important additions to the nursing school curricula.
Results/Conclusions
The nursing students were exposed to many different laboratory activities including measuring the effectiveness of sunscreens, toxicology of alcohol, and an ELISA test for the transmission of diseases from one person to another.