Have Nurses Nothing Better to Do Than Discuss Climate Change?

From THE DAILY SCEPTIC

by Dr Roger Watson

If you wanted a snapshot of why so many nurses feel increasingly disconnected from their professional bodies, you could do worse than read the minutes of a recent meeting of senior nursing figures. I am referring to the Fellows meeting of the Royal College of Nursing held on June 18th in London. I have the privilege of being a Fellow, but I was not, thankfully, present at the meeting.

One might imagine that a gathering of some of the most distinguished members of the profession would devote its attention to the crisis engulfing nursing: staff shortages, corridor care, collapsing university departments, declining recruitment, violence against staff, increasing workloads, and the endless haemorrhage of experienced nurses from the profession.

Those matters did eventually appear, but not before a lengthy discussion about climate change. Apparently, climate change is now “the biggest threat” to health. Not waiting lists, corridor care, the inability of patients to see a GP, the chronic shortage of Registered Nurses, the collapse of nursing education or emergency departments where patients spend days on trolleys.

The meeting heard presentations about environmental sustainability, adaptation strategies, maximum workplace temperatures, heat awareness campaigns, global partnerships, urban design, building cooling, the experience of colleagues overseas and the need to imagine “a day in the life of a nurse in 2050” working in a world two degrees warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.

This is simply climate alarmism, demonstrating that nursing leadership had drunk deeply of the climate emergency Kool-Aid. As I write this, I am working in Hong Kong where, notwithstanding the heatwave I left behind in the UK, nurses are working in temperatures many degrees higher than those in which nurses are working back home. I hear no complaints. If the world warms up by two degrees, the UK will still be cooler than Hong Kong is now.

The Royal College of Nursing, presumably under the impression that anyone listens to it, has declared an environmental and health emergency and is developing educational material to teach members about heat awareness. It is also developing a sustainability strategy extending beyond its own business operations into professional nursing practice. Really? Have nurses nothing better to do?

The profession is experiencing perhaps the greatest crisis in its modern history. Hospitals cannot recruit enough staff. Experienced nurses are leaving faster than they can be replaced. Universities are shedding academic posts, and nursing schools are disappearing into giant multidisciplinary faculties where nursing leadership is increasingly absent. Research capacity is being eroded. Students are burdened with debt and many never complete their degrees.

These issues eventually received attention, but the discussion on safe staffing and corridor care addressed problems that confront nurses every day. Those are the kinds of issues that nurses expect to be addressed when they join a professional nursing organisation.

Reading the minutes, however, one is struck by how readily nursing has absorbed the language of modern environmental activism. Nurses are encouraged to influence urban planning, building design, community resilience, international climate policy and global adaptation. Since when did nurses become experts in urban planning, architecture, climate modelling or international environmental diplomacy?

There is, of course, nothing controversial about ensuring hospitals remain cool during heatwaves. But these practical concerns scarcely require nurses to become climate campaigners. Hospitals have always had to prepare for extremes of weather. This is called contingency planning. It is the job of managers, engineers and estate departments working alongside clinical staff.

If the Royal College of Nursing has its way, then the nursing profession should redefine itself as an environmental movement. There appears to be no sense that members might question whether climate activism falls within the remit of a nursing organisation at all.

Many frontline nurses might reasonably ask the Royal College of Nursing: could we fix the staffing crisis first? Could we deal with corridor care? Could we rescue nursing education? Could we stop experienced academics disappearing from the profession?

Professional bodies have finite time, finite money and finite influence. Every hour devoted to sustainability strategies is an hour not devoted to workforce planning. The nursing profession became one of the most trusted professions in society because it concentrated on nursing: looking after patients, advocating safe care, improving education and advancing research. The temptation to embrace every fashionable political cause should be resisted. Nurses have always contributed to public health, but they are not climate scientists, urban planners or environmental lobbyists.

At a time when the nursing profession is fighting for survival, there is something absurd about imagining nurses in 2050 while so many are struggling simply to get through their shifts in 2026. I would suggest a showing of Climate: The Movie at the annual dinner for Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing, but I think my invitation to the dinner may get lost in the post.

Professor Roger Watson is Professor of Nursing at Saint Francis University, Hong Kong. He has a PhD in biochemistry. He writes in a personal capacity.