Challenges and Advances in Nursing Practice: Public and Environmental Health Perspectives
A Special Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601) belonging to the section "Health Care Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 291
Editor
Interests: maternal and children’s health; child growth and nutrition; neurodevelopment; maternal and child exposure to environmental pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nursing professionals are fundamental to health systems worldwide, although their economic, social, and scientific importance is undervalued. Nursing practice spans a wide range of fields, including health promotion and disease prevention, hospital and community care, public health, continuing education, and direct patient care. Nurses are present across all stages of the human life cycle, and the broad, interdisciplinary training characteristic of the nursing discipline has enabled a continuous expansion of professional roles and areas of practice.
In the context of public and environmental health, high-quality nursing care plays a critical role in improving population health outcomes, preventing disease, reducing health inequities, and strengthening the resilience of health systems. Nurses are key actors in translating public health policies into practice, implementing preventive strategies, responding to health emergencies, and addressing the social and environmental determinants of health at local, national, and global levels.
Global environmental and societal changes—including demographic transitions, shifting disease patterns, climate change, environmental degradation, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and changes in lifestyles and work conditions—pose complex challenges to nursing practice. These transformations directly affect population health and demand adaptive, evidence-based, and context-sensitive nursing responses. Within increasingly globalized and interconnected scenarios, nursing must be framed from an international and systems-oriented perspective, fostering dialogue on emerging themes while deepening established areas of knowledge relevant to public and environmental health.
This Special Issue aims to advance understanding of the challenges, innovations, and contributions of nursing within the broader field of environmental and public health research. It seeks to promote critical discussion on nursing as a social practice and scientific discipline, emphasizing its role in health promotion, disease prevention, and the sustainability and resilience of health systems.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Nursing contributions to health promotion, disease prevention, and public health outcomes;
- Nursing work environments, workforce sustainability, and the global nursing shortage;
- Social, economic, and environmental determinants of health and nursing practice;
- Advanced nursing roles, leadership, and expanded scopes of practice in public and environmental health;
- Digital health, telehealth, and the use of innovative technologies in nursing care, education, and health services management;
- Planetary Health and nursing, including climate change, environmental sustainability, and health impacts of ecological degradation;
- One Health approaches, zoonoses, pandemic preparedness, and the role of nursing in human–animal–environment interfaces;
- Responses to social vulnerabilities and health inequities, particularly among marginalized and at-risk populations;
- Education, training, and management of nursing professionals in diverse global contexts;
- Prevention and management of chronic non-communicable diseases;
- Occupational health issues in nursing, including precarious working conditions, excessive workload, fatigue, stress, and illness.
By bringing together international and interdisciplinary perspectives, this Special Issue seeks to strengthen the evidence base of nursing research within environmental and public health, highlight the essential role of nursing in addressing contemporary global health challenges, and contribute to the development of more equitable, resilient, and sustainable health systems.
Prof. Dr. Rejane C. Marques
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- nursing education
- nursing practice
- global health
- health equity and social vulnerability
- health promotion
- health systems resilience
- nursing work environments
- planetary health
- public and environmental health
- social and environmental determinants of health
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
