Climate change has had important impacts on health, because it threatens clean air, safe consumption of water, provision of food, safe housing, increases temperatures and affects social dimensions. Children, especially those under five years, are a vulnerable population to negative health effects. Due to the combined effects of development, physiology, diet and specific behaviors of this age group, children may experience higher levels of exposure to toxins than adults. Moreover, children are at a greater risk for heat illness, insect transmission, malnutrition, diarrhea and asthma. Environmental awareness is very important in the nursing field. Universities play a leading role in creating educational solutions to problems associated with sustainable development. At the present time, there is a growing need to include sustainability and climate change in the nursing curriculum. Blended-learning has recently become a popular format for the education of health professionals and is considered a new methodological strategy for training in children’s environmental health. For this reason, taking the NurSus project as a reference, we began this research. Principal Researchers
- Cristina Álvarez García. Universidad de Jaén.
- Isabel M. López Medina. Universidad de Jaén.
- Carmen Álvarez Nieto. Universidad de Jaén.
Collaborating Researchers
- Pedro L. Pancorbo Hidalgo. Universidad de Jaén.
- Sebastián Sanz Martos. Universidad de Jaén.
- Janet Richardson. University of Plymouth.
- Janet Kelsey. University of Plymouth.
- Rachel Carter. University of Plymouth.
- Daniel Puente Fernández. Universidad de Granada.
- Raquel Sarabia Lavín. Universidad de Cantabria.
- Ana Lavedán Santamaría. Universidad de Lleida.
- Inmaculada López Leiva. Universidad de Málaga.
- Ana María Porcel Gálvez. Universidad de Sevilla.
- Vanesa Cantón Habas. Universidad de Córdoba.
- Lorena Guitiérrez Puertas. Universidad de Almería.
Objetives The general objectives of the project are:
- Build and validate a knowledge questionnaire and a skills questionnaire on children’s environmental health for Spanish and English nursing students.
- Determine the attitudes, knowledge and skills on children´s environmental health of nursing students from different Spanish and United Kingdom universities.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of digital educational materials in training nursing students on children´s environmental health.
The secondary objectives are:
- Build a knowledge questionnaire and a skills questionnaire on children´s environmental health in Spanish version.
- Develop and culturally adapt an English version of the knowledge questionnaire and the skills questionnaire on children’s environmental health.
- Check the psychometric properties of the knowledge questionnaires and the skills questionnaire on children’s environmental health in the university context of Spain and England.
- Assess the attitudes, knowledge and skills on children´s environmental health of Spanish nursing students.
- Assess the improvement in attitudes, knowledge and skills on children´s environmental health of university nursing students after exposure to the digital educational material.
- Determinate the perceived quality by nursing students of the digital educational materials on children´s health and environment in its didactic, technological and accessibility aspects.
Methods The project is developed in four main stages:
- An observational cross-sectional study to build and validate the Children’s Environmental Health Knowledge Questionnaire (ChEHK-Q) and the Children’s Environmental Health Skills Questionnaire (ChEHS-Q) in the Spanish context, following four phases:
- Phase 1: Development of the questionnaire and items wording
- Phase 2: Content validation by an expert panel
- Phase 3: Pilot test
- Phase 4: Psychometric evaluation
- An observational cross-sectional study to translate, adapt and validate the ChEHK-Qand the ChEHS-Q in the British context, following two phases:
- Phase 1: Translation and adaptation process
- Phase 2: Validation process
- An observational multi-centre cross-sectional study to evaluate the attitudes, knowledge and skills of Spanish undergraduate nursing students.
- A quasi-experimental study of time series using pre-post educational intervention evaluation. The groups were exposed to the educational material and the attitudes, knowledge and skills were measured before and after the exposure. A post-exposure measurement of the quality of educational material was undertaken.
Results 1. Development of the Children´s Environmental Health Knowledge Questionnaire (ChEHK-Q) and the Children’s Environmental Health Skills Questionnaire (ChEHS-Q). Their English and Spanish versions, instructions for use and scoring can be downloaded from these links.
2. Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Attitudes, Knowledge and Skills of Children´s Environmental Health.
3. Effectiveness of the e-NurSus Children Intervention in the Training of Nursing Students.
If you are a nursing student and want to test your attitudes, knowledge and skills about children’s environmental health and help us in our study CLICK HERE.
