Planetary health and nursing: Embedding values into standards, behaviours, and education

Planetary health and nursing: Embedding values into standards, behaviours, and education

Planetary health, which recognises the interdependence between human and environmental health, is a growing imperative in healthcare. Nurses are at the frontline of climate-related health challenges, yet planetary health remains largely absent from professional nursing standards and practice. While the International Council of Nurses (ICN) explicitly identifies environmental responsibility as a nursing obligation, national nursing standards, including the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Registered Nurse Standards for Practice (2019), fail to integrate planetary health principles. This regulatory gap limits nursing's capacity to address climate-related health disparities, weakening the profession's ethical commitment to sustainability and global health.
This contemporary issues paper examines the alignment between planetary health and nursing's professional values, focusing on five key values—advocacy, empathy, equity, reciprocity, and hopefulness—that underpin ethical nursing practice. Drawing on the ICN Code of Ethics and the Planetary Health Framework, we argue that integrating these values into nursing standards and education is critical for preparing nurses to lead in planetary health. We review international nursing standards and highlight their lack of explicit commitment to environmental responsibility.
To bridge this gap, we propose embedding planetary health values into nursing education through curriculum reform, experiential learning, and accreditation requirements. Equipping nursing students with the knowledge and skills to address planetary health challenges will strengthen their professional identity and leadership capacity. Aligning nursing standards with planetary health principles will not only uphold ethical obligations but also position nurses as key advocates in creating sustainable, adaptive, and equitable healthcare systems. Without regulatory and educational reform, planetary health risks remain a peripheral concern rather than a core nursing responsibility.