The 2025 World Health Organization ‘State of the world’s nursing’ report identifies the climate agenda as one of five emerging policy priorities for the nursing profession – a clear call to action on planetary health for nurses in every specialty, setting and location (World Health Organization, 2025) . A healthy planet is the foundation for healthy people, when the environment suffers, so do we.

The need for nurses to consider planetary health in their practice has been increasingly recognised by peak nursing bodies (Australian College of Nursing, 2022; Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery, 2024; International Council of Nurses, 2024) . The inclusion of planetary health in education and training for nurses is a vital part of this.

Integrating planetary health education into pre-registration nursing programs aligns with the Standard 3 of the Registered Nurse Accreditation Standards set by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council; it requires nursing curricula to reflect contemporary practice and respond to emerging trends (Best et al., 2023). However, research suggests that Australian nurses are underprepared to practice in this changing context, and that current Australian nursing curriculum has limited focus on critical planetary health content such as climate change science and sustainability.

With an awareness of these issues, and a desire to include students in the conversation, Sydney Nursing School (SNS) Green Team initiated a Student Sustainability Champion Program involving participation in the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) initiative, a student-led, metric-based evaluation of planetary health content in health professional schools. Over several months three students from nursing and dietetics worked alongside academic mentors to explore five key domains, one of which was curriculum.

We found important gaps in our nursing curriculum. Several units included discrete planetary health-related content such as climate change and equity, extreme weather events, and health system sustainability. However, these concepts were often not explicit in unit descriptions or core learning outcomes, limiting visibility, and threatening their security within the curriculum. Most planetary health content was in social science units and there was limited content in clinical and biomedical units with notable gaps including the impacts of climate change on cardiorespiratory and reproductive health.

First Nations pedagogy, an identified strength, is embedded as a stand-alone unit and scaffolded across the program. Traditional Indigenous Knowledge systems emphasise the interdependence between environment and health, drawing clear links to planetary health as essential for human health and wellbeing. Another highlight was interprofessional learning curricula which we found had adopted healthcare sustainability content, fostering crucial transdisciplinary learning.

Our experience demonstrates the benefits of students and academics working in partnership through the PHRC initiative. As SNS prepares to adopt a new curriculum in 2026, this work provides important local evidence and a strong student voice to inform meaningful integration of planetary health content and ongoing evaluation.

Future nurses must be equipped with not only clinical skills, but also with the knowledge, values, and leadership capabilities to respond to the complex challenges of climate change. Strengthening the curriculum through clear, outward-facing commitments to planetary health, appointment of formal planetary health leads, fostering transdisciplinary collaborations, and embedding student partnerships will ensure the cohesive, stable, and future-focused integration of planetary health into nursing education and training.

You can access the full report and global summary documents at the Planetary Health Report Card Website: https://phreportcard.org/

Acknowledgements:We acknowledge Dr Virginia Chan (Lecturer in Master of Nutrition and Dietetics at SNS) for her mentorship of students. We also acknowledge SNS Green Team Members and other SNS academics for their contributions and support of this work.

Authors:

Ms Darcie O’Connell Bachelor of Nursing (Advanced Studies) Student and Sustainability Champion, Co-Chair of the Western Pacific Region of the Nursing Now Challenge.

Ms Michelle Levy Bachelor of Nursing (Advanced Studies) Student and Sustainability Champion.

Ms Pritika Prahatheesan Master of Nutrition and Dietetics Student and Sustainability Champion.

Dr Gemma Saravanos Lecturer and SNS Green Team lead at Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney.

References:

Australian College of Nursing. (2022). Reimagining the role of nursing in emissions reduction. https://www.acn.edu.au/advocacy-policy/position-statement-reimagining-the-role-of-nursing-in-emissions-reduction

Best, O., Tutticci, N., Heart, D., Lokmic-Tomkins, Z., & Ward, A. (2023). Rising to the climate challenge: integrating climate action in the undergraduate curriculum. Aust J Adv Nurs,40(3). https://doi.org/10.37464/2023.403.1266

Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery. (2024). Position Statement: Planetary Health.https://irp.cdn-website.com/1636a90e/files/uploaded/Planetary_Health_Position_Statement_050824.pdf

International Council of Nurses. (2024). Position Statement: Nurses, climate change and health.https://www.icn.ch/sites/default/files/2024-11/Nurses%20climate%20change%20health%20PS_EN.pdf

World Health Organization. (2025). State of the world’s nursing.https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240110236