PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT

The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) is pleased to announce the commencement of a new project titled ‘Empowering the next generation of health care professionals with knowledge, skills, tools, and supports to address infectious diseases related to climate change in Canada’. This project has been funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

As part of this project, CASN will develop national, evidence-informed, consensus-based guidelines on climate-driven infectious disease for nursing education. To support the creation of learning opportunities related to these guidelines, CASN will create a series of accompanying online learning modules. The modules will provide high quality information and animated case studies in a dynamic, easy-to-use format.

Climate change in Canada has resulted in a rise of zoonotic, food-borne, and water-borne diseases. Nurses have a critical role in ensuring Canadians have access to information that will help them prevent disease, and working with individuals and communities in dealing with health impacts of climate-driven disease. With the mission of leading nursing education and scholarship in the interest of healthier Canadians, CASN is eager to support the development of high quality education for nurses in this area of practice.

This project builds on previous work CASN has carried out in the area of public health/community health, including the development and publication of Guidelines for Quality Community Health Nursing Clinical Placements, Entry-to-Practice Public Health Nursing Competencies, and an online repository of nursing education teaching strategies for public health.

This project will be carried out over a 30-month period, concluding in March 2021.

If you would like more information about this project, please contact Julia Thomas, Education Policy Coordinator, at jthomas@casn.ca