Global
A conversation with Teddie Potter, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FNAP
In fall 2023, the School of Nursing announced the launch of the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice to educate future planetary health leaders, promote planetary health practice, and advance innovative research. The following is an excerpt of a conversation with Teddie Potter, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, the center’s inaugural director as well as the school’s director for planetary health.
Planetary health is solutions oriented, which really aligns with nursing in that we aren't just studying the problems—we really get in there to try to solve the problems. Instead of focusing on treatments, we focus on behaviors and behavior shifts to maximize health.
Planetary health looks at bringing the global community together to work on changes that will improve the lives of future generations. That's where I wanted to put my effort, and that's what the Center for Planetary Health and Environmental Justice is about.
We worked with the Planetary Health Alliance and experts from around the world in various disciplines to identify an educational framework of five domains we want every student in higher education to walk away understanding and having been exposed to: interconnection within nature, the anthropocene and health, equity and social justice, movement building and systems change, and systems thinking and complexity.
At the School of Nursing, we have threaded planetary health through our entire curriculum at all levels. Our students understand they are part of this global transition and movement. It's not just an elective course or something that some students take. Every single student is part of this experience. Every single faculty is part of making this possible. We are the first nursing school to thread planetary health across an entire program, and others in the U.S. and around the world are looking to us because we're operationalizing these theories of what we need to change.
One of the missions of the Center is that it's not just going to be insular and only looking at nursing. Our goal is to find others across campus who can be planetary health champions and really bring this work forward in their area—not to replicate what nursing is doing because we're solving our own parts of the puzzle.
You cannot do planetary health if you do not understand that it is a global issue. Even if you never travel outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul, you are still being exposed to these massive environmental, planetary structures that impact our health. It's about understanding that issues around the world can dramatically shift what's happening in Minnesota. We saw that with the pandemic, and we certainly saw it with smoke coming from Canada's wildfires. That understanding helps all our people be as resilient as possible and make the necessary preparations for a world where these environmental shifts are having impacts.
We know what needs to be done, and we have innovative solutions at our fingertips. If we can learn to listen to and work with those who have different ideas and expertise, we will be well on our way to creating a future that works for all life on the planet!
Teddie Potter is Director of Planetary Health at the School of Nursing