This episode takes a deep dive into the world of sustainability and health equity. What’s the scale of the problem? How serious is it? And, most importantly, what can we do about it? – both as a whole system, and also specifically for everyone working in health visiting. How can we focus our efforts to make the biggest difference?
In this episode, our CEO, Alison Morton, is joined by Professor Charlotte McArdle. Charlotte is the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer at NHS England and is leading policy work on a range of Quality, Safety and Women’s Health improvement programmes. Alongside this, Charlotte leads the nursing profession’s response to sustainable healthcare in England, recognising the role nurses and midwives play to reduce climate change, and making strong links between the health of the planet and the health of the population.
In this episode, Charlotte and Alison discuss:
- The importance of nurses’, midwives’ and health visitors’ role in health equity – tackling the social determinants of health, including preventing global emergencies, such as climate change.
- The background to the “Nurses for Health Equity” report and subsequent steps that are being taken across the globe to build a united “voice” for the nursing family which has the potential to drive real change.
- The forthcoming CNO Plan for Nursing and Midwifery in England, particularly the pillar focused on “protecting our planet”.
- Charlotte concludes with her hopes for focused action by nurses, midwives and health visitors in four key areas:
- Prevention and early intervention – working together with “one voice”, engaging in population health approaches.
- Quality improvement applied to climate change – using improvement science methods to lead innovation.
- Co-production – working with people, families and communities to develop new sustainability approaches.
- Decarbonising our care processes – for example, reducing the use of single use plastics, and supporting families with ways to become more sustainable, including various approaches to address the current high carbon footprint of disposable nappies, sanitary and period products.