Global and planetary health: teaching as if the future matters.

Abstract

If nursing, along with other health professions, is to be able to critique national and international health policy and be equipped to address the global and planetary dimensions of health, the conceptual horizons of our educational and research enterprises will need to be expanded. Not only are nursing curricula needed that address such concepts as "health for all" and "environmental sustainability," but new pedagogies are required that engage students deeply and call them to socially and globally responsible ways-of-being. This article describes teaching and learning in a course that situates health in a global and environmental context and calls forth new personal and professional meanings.