Understanding nurses' experience of climate change and then climate action in Western Canada

Abstract

Aim: To understand nurses' personal and professional experiences with the heat dome, drought and forest fires of 2021 and how those events impacted their perspectives on climate action. Design: A naturalistic inquiry using qualitative description. Method: Twelve nurses from the interior of British Columbia, Canada, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Thematic analysis was employed. No patient or public involvement. Results: Data analysis yielded three themes to describe nurses' perspective on climate change: health impacts; climate action and system influences. These experiences contributed to nurses' beliefs about climate change, how to take climate action in their personal lives and their challenges enacting climate action in their workplace settings. Conclusions: Nurses' challenges with enacting environmentally responsible practices in their workplace highlight the need for engagement throughout institutions in supporting environmentally friendly initiatives. Impact: The importance of system-level changes in healthcare institutions for planetary health.