Jones lobbies Washington on health effects of extreme heat
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The public health effects of increasingly severe national heat waves were the topic of conversation during a series of meetings in Washington, D.C., last week, attended by UIC College of Nursing Urbana campus director Krista Jones, DNP ’11, MSN ’07, RN, PHNA-BC, FAAN.
Jones joined leaders from 26 prominent national nursing organizations at the meetings with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Office of Climate Change, Health and Equity.
Jones is chair of the Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations, where she represents about 190,000 community and public health nurses. She’s also immediate past president of the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators.
Heat waves are occurring more often than they used to in major cities across the United States. Their frequency has increased steadily, from an average of two heat waves per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s and 2020s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These have led to impacts on population health, increases in work-related accidents and decreases in productivity, and impacts on school closings and athletic participation for children.
“I provided an appeal for federal funding to state and local governments to grow the public health nursing workforce and expand population health nursing services for home visiting programs,” she says. “[I also lobbied for] the provision of equipment to cool residences as well the expansion of homeless shelter capacities and cooling centers in rural and urban communities.”