Canadian nursing perspectives in environmental justice for equity-oriented planetary health

This project is intended to advance a Canadian perspective in environmental justice nursing scholarship. Additionally, it is intended to contribute to the discourse and praxis of equity-oriented planetary health nursing. The central question guiding this project is: How can Canadian nursing integrate environmental justice into its sphere of concern, particularly in the context of developing equity-oriented planetary health praxis? While environmental justice and its relationship to health are gaining prominence in American nursing literature, environmental justice remains largely overlooked by Canadian nurse scholars. Recognizing the limited environmental justice content within Canadian nursing literature, this Master of Science in Nursing project is intended to address this gap through three interconnected objectives. Firstly, this project is intended to provide a logical argument for expanding Canadian nursing’s mandate for social justice, health equity, and anti-racism to include environmental justice. This will involve providing a comprehensive background on the connections between environmental (in)justice and health to underscore the importance of addressing environmental justice within the nursing profession in Canada. Secondly, this project includes a review of existing literature on environmental, climate, planetary health, and environmental justice in nursing in Canada. This review aims to contribute to the groundwork for an environmental justice perspective in the newer discourse of planetary health nursing, thereby contributing to planetary health nursing praxis that is fundamentally equity-oriented. Finally, this project will address the identified gap in Canadian nursing through the creation of a continuing education course on environmental racism for nurses in Canada, as well as a university-level course focused on environmental justice and planetary health. This project is premised on the idea that nurses in Canada have a professional and ethical commitment to promote health equity, a goal that has also been prioritized by public health organizations worldwide. Furthermore, professional and regulatory nursing bodies across Canada have recognized racism as a public health crisis, and the inclusion of environmental justice in nursing aligns with the current push for thoroughgoing anti-racist nursing scholarship and practice. Integrating environmental justice into Canadian nursing therefore aligns with newer professional practice standards focused on anti-racism and longstanding professional commitments to social justice and health equity. By offering diverse environmental justice curricula for student nurses, practicing nurses, and nurse educators and scholars, the Canadian nursing community can respond to the needs of individuals, families, and communities unjustly marginalized by systems of oppression, and address the broad challenges posed by intersecting and co-occurring health equity and planetary health crises.