Dr. Schenk’s primary research interest is the environmental impacts of healthcare, which she has been working to reduce for over 25 years. As a nurse, she sees the many tons of waste produced at the bedside, the constant high-intensity use of energy, and exposures of staff and patients to toxic chemicals. Through energy conservation and waste reduction, environmental stewardship efforts at her hospital save almost a million dollars per year. In earning her PhD, she developed the Nurses Environmental Awareness Tool, which measures nurses’ awareness of these challenges, how related they are to health, and what they do about them.  The tool has been used across the nation, in 8 different countries, and translated into 3 additional languages. She is currently developing the CHANT: Climate, Health and Nursing Tool, with other colleagues.

In addition, Dr. Schenk conducts health system research based on current nursing issues including reduction of nosocomial harm and impacts of the electronic health record. With colleagues across the health system, Dr. Schenk has led the development of the Providence St. Joseph Clinical Scholarship Framework, a guide to generating new evidence and using existing evidence to improve nursing practice.

 

Healthcare, including nursing practice, serves the purpose of creating, achieving and sustaining health for the people and communities it serves.  At the same time, healthcare itself furthers damage to the natural environment through the significant contributions it makes to climate change, waste accumulation and the use of environmental toxicants. In turn, these negative impacts put human health at further risk. Nurses are guided by their standard of practice, which states “The registered nurse practices in an environmentally safe and healthy manner.” Yet, the topic of environmental impacts of healthcare and nursing practice is not routinely addressed in educational curricula, practice policies, or outcomes measures.

In order to decrease environmentally damaging healthcare practices, information about the topic needs to be addressed in the education of clinical professionals, as well as in daily practice. However, little is known about the awareness of practicing nurses of environmental impacts of nursing practice. In response to this gap, Dr. Schenk developed the Nurses Environmental Awareness Tool, to measure nurse awareness and associated behaviors. This set of six scales can be adapted to other clinical professions to measure awareness and behaviors related to the environmental impacts of healthcare in clinical settings.

Climate Change has emerged as a significant risk to human health. Nurses are in key positions to educate patients, families, and communities about these risks, and to make practice changes to reduce greenhouse gas production. Again, little is known about nurses’ awareness of the health impacts of climate change. Dr. Schenk, with other colleagues, is developing the CHANT: Climate, Health, and Nursing Tool, to measure nurses’ awareness, motivation, urgency and behaviors related to climate change and health. CHANT will serve as an ongoing measure of the nation’s nurses regarding this crucial health concern.