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Research Forum

Welcome to the ANHE Research Forum!

The Research Forum frames and supports an agenda for enabling nurses to solve environmental challenges to health through the creation of new knowledge. We would be delighted if you would consider joining the Research Forum, where we highlight research talks and new research directions using a journal club format. We aim to bring members together to collaborate on publications, grant proposals, and policy actions related to environmental health. 

The Research Forum provides excellent resources, support, and mentorship for all researcher experience levels. Together, novice and experienced nurse researchers focus on environmental health issues of concern.

The ANHE Research Forum benefits from close partners working in advocacy, practice, and education. Critical research questions arise from these relationships and the resulting research agenda reflects the most current and pressing challenges of our profession. The Research Forum holds monthly meetings and you can view past webinars on ANHE YouTube channel! 

Sign up for our workgroup listserve so you can stay up to date with our activities: Sign up and learn more below!

For more information about the ANHE Research Forum, please contact info@envirn.org. 

Join our upcoming monthly calls!

February 22nd – 3pm ET

Speaker: Wendy Bauer, PhD, RN

Title: Mapping a Research Trajectory of the Impact of Fragranced Products on Respiratory Health to the NIEHS Translational Research Framework

Fragranced personal care and consumer products are an important and modifiable source of chemical exposure associated with poor air quality and health outcomes. Emissions from fragranced products, such as perfumes, cleansers, and air fresheners, contribute to indoor air pollution and are among the primary ingredients of ground-level ozone. Many fragranced products emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), causing inflammation and exacerbation of respiratory and allergic conditions, with those who are economically disadvantaged and historically marginalized at the greatest risk of exposure. The choice to use fragranced products impacts all within the shared space, with implications for the social, occupational, and family context. More research is needed to better understand the factors impacting health outcomes and disparities related to fragranced personal care and consumer product use and to develop effective behavioral interventions to limit risk. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of a planned research trajectory centered on mitigating the adverse effects of fragranced products on indoor air quality and health outcomes as mapped to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Translational Research Framework. Discussion will support the continued refinement of approaches beneficial to study in this important area of environmental health research. Content supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25ES033452 (PI: Castner). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

March 28, 2024 – 3pm ET

Title: The Disposal of Medical Waste in West Africa: An Environmental and Occupational Health Challenge 

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, in 2020, COVID-associated healthcare waste alone was 3.4 kg per person per day globally. It was about 2.5 kg per bed per day in developing countries. Dr. Laura Jean Ridge will discuss her research on the occupational health of healthcare workers in West Africa, particularly in Liberia and Ghana. Dr. Ridge is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati's College of Nursing. She has received funding from the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and was a member of the 2023 cohort of the Environmental Health Research Institute for Nurse and Clinician Scientists™.  Dr. Ridge is a nurse practitioner who earned her Master's in Adult Primary Care from Columbia University (2010). She provided primary and HIV-oriented care in New York City for five years before her PhD at New York University.

Register for one or all upcoming webinars here 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting

1 hour of Nursing Continuing Education credit will be provided for participants who complete an evaluation and earn 80% on the post-test. 

EHRI-NCS is a flipped classroom, train-the-trainer and mentorship program

April 2, 2024
Begin self-paced pre-recorded didactic material open in the virtual classroom: Nine sessions (60-90 minutes each) plus bonus in-depth optional material. 

July 2024
5 days of real-time workshop: 3 in-person days in Niagara Falls, New York with 2 real-time virtual days.

July – December 2024
Individualized Mentorship and Networking

2025 and beyond… engage with us for future cohorts!

Participants will have a year-long opportunity to learn with

APPLY ONLINE

Applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis.
Last date to Apply: February 28, 2024
Applicants will be notified of acceptance monthly, no later than by March 20.

Questions?

Please fill out the contact form at castnerincorporated.com

We are committed to diversity and inclusion for those who are under-represented in US Biomedical, Clinical, Behavioral, and Social Sciences. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to age, ethnicity, color, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national birthplace, disability, or veteran status. Our application includes optional questions to support our accountability to our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

This workshop is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25ES033452 (PI: Castner). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

 

Environmental Health Nurse Research Priorities

What distinguishes environmental health nursing research from other disciplines of research? Environmental health nursing research is typically defined by a public health problem, whether that be in a clinical, community or occupational setting. Use of a symptom science model can be useful for clinical and public health research and is relevant to the scope and standards of nursing (Castner, 2019)

The ANHE Research Forum has developed a set of environmental health nurse research priorities to enhance methodological innovations and rigor (see full document here: Aligning-Priorities_7_26_2018-.pdf (1829 downloads ) ). These priorities were last revised 7/2018. Approved by ANHE Board of Directors 7/2018.

  • Vulnerable populations(children, prenatal, older adults, racial/ethnic under-represented, genetically at risk groups)
  • High risk occupations
  • Geographic communities overburdened with environmental pollution
  • EJ communities
  • Clinically at risk populations
  • At risk occupations (special emphasis on healthcare providers)
  • Family systems
  • International/Global Health
  • Occupational
  • Home Environment
  • School Health
  • Geographically defined population
  • Environmental Endotypes of Symptom Clusters, casual pathways to disease development and exacerbation
  • Develop and validate new Biomarkers of Body Burden (internal dose)
  • Validate of objective measures of personal exposure
  • Personalized prevention interventions
  • Report back of exposure, biomarker, and physiologic data
  • Phenotype/endotype identification 
  • Gene-environment interactions (includes epigenetic measures)
  • Symptom clusters
  • Pollutants transformation and interaction in the environment and body
  • Visualization for stakeholder engagement
  • Multi-level analyses
  • Emerging Techniques and large dataset linkages (e.g. machine learning)
  • Clinical/public health practice informatics
  • Secondary data analyses
  • Developing/Testing novel digital applications
  • Big genomics data
  • Big data and precision nursing
  • Smoke/vaping exposure (includes second and third-hand)
  • Climate/Climate Change (Extreme events exposure)
  • Ambient Pollutants (industrial, traffic, extreme events)
  • Heavy Metals in air, water, food, and soil
  • Personal chemical exposures (e.g. pesticides, building materials, personal care products)
  • All hazards: CBRNE
  • Indoor exposures
  • Allostatic load (stress, adverse childhood events, noise, etc)
  • Support development and validation of the Climate Health and Nursing Tool (CHANT)
  • Disaster/disaster preparedness
  • Enivronmental Risk Communication/Addressing perceived risk
  • Smoking Cessation
  • Raise awareness
  • Environmental Health Education
  • Environmental Health Assesment
  • Organizational Sustainability 
  • Patient education and self-management
  • Indoor/outdoor Environmental modification
  • Policy

Research

Featured Webinars

The Research Forum host webinars in which nurse researchers share their envirnometnal heatlh reseach. View our featured webinars below: 1) Dr. Jessica Castner,  PhD, RN-BC, FAEN, FAAN, 2) Dr. Roxana Chicas, PhD, RN: Work Health Status of Latinx Agricultural Workers in Florida and 3) Dr. Julie Postma, PhD, RN: Promoting Risk Reduction Among Young Adults with Asthma During Wildfire Smoke Events.  You can also view past webinars on ANHE YouTube channel. 

Research Forum Co-Chairs

Lisa M. Thompson

Dr. Thompson, PhD, RN, FNP, FAAN is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at Emory University and affiliated faculty in the Department of Environmental Health in the Rollins School of Public Health. She is the Director of Graduate Studies for the PhD program in nursing. She is a member of the Network for Evaluation and Implementation Sciences at Emory University (NEISE). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses. Dr. Thompson’s research focuses on environmental health disparities that contribute to adverse perinatal outcomes, specifically low birth weight, preterm birth, child stunting and cognitive development. Her contribution to nursing research is in global environmental health, specifically developing and evaluating interventions to reduce exposures to household air pollution from cooking fires in low-resource countries.

Liz Mizelle

Elizabeth (Liz) Mizelle, PhD, RN-BC, CNE is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina (NC). She graduated with a PhD in 2021 and her dissertation research was a community-informed mixed methods study on environmental heat stress, fluid intake and hydration status among eastern NC farmworkers. Liz is building a research program focused on the negative health effects of extreme weather on coastal, rural, and agricultural communities. She is an AgriSafe Nurse Scholar and a Daisy Faculty Award recipient.