Final blog!

I cannot believe the semester is over! I learned so much in this class that I do not even know where to start. I found the topics on climate change particularly interesting. There are so many ways that climate change affects our health and our lives. Climate change has always concerned me in other ways, but now I have new things to add to my toolbox when discussing this with patients and coworkers. I was amazed to find out some of the things I did concerning my personal care products that I put on my skin every day. I have begun looking into alternative products not only for myself, but to recommend to my patients. The topics covering environmental injustice were incredibly important, and I am glad that these were brought to my attention. Living in my privileged little bubble, I never realized that there were still so many injustices that exist among minority and lower income populations regarding environmental health. As health care professionals, we need to be aware of this and become involved to help push for change. We also need to vote! I have skipped voting in the past because I did not see why I needed to, but I have realized over the course of this class that my vote, and the vote of all nursing professionals and public health professionals, are highly important! We now have the knowledge, and we need to put it to work! We need to use this vast knowledge for good. As far as the class structure itself, I will have to admit that I was skeptical about the blog setup at first, but I actually really enjoyed it. I liked having our small blog groups and getting to know about my small group through the blogs. Being such a large class, this is a great way to split up the group. I also enjoyed seeing presentations last night, and I was very impressed with everyone's public speaking skills! Thanks to Dr. Sattler, Jen, and everyone else for a great class!