The concept of exposure in environmental health for nursing

Abstract

Aim To report an analysis of the concept of exposure in environmental health for nursing. Background The importance of the environment has long been recognized in nursing, although the nature and scope of the concept and how it influences health has varied over time. Exposure is the sufficient and necessary link between environment and health. In nursing practice, the word ‘exposure’ has been used frequently with no clear standard definition. Design Concept analysis using Kim’s first level analytics. Data sources Chronological review (1980–2015) of the nursing science literature was conducted through ProQuest Dissertations and Theses and CINAHL, followed by a multi-disciplinary search through PubMed (1980–2015), texts and the Internet to compare definitions and measurements of exposure and related concepts. Methods Explicit and implicit conceptual definitions and measurements of exposure were identified, categorized and analyzed. Results The newly defined concept of exposure is a process involves three phases: 1. contact is made between a target and one or more agents in the same environment; 2. the agent accesses the target by one or more routes of entry; and 3. the agent enters the target by crossing a barrier or boundary. Existing measurements related to each phase are identified and discussed. Definitions of target and agent were refined for congruency. Conclusion Consistent use of terms as defined is critical to development of nursing knowledge. These concepts should be incorporated into nursing-related research to evaluate their usefulness to nursing. Alignment of this concept with relevant theories should be critically examined.

Advancing the symptom science model with environmental health

“…Second, the agent has the potential to enter the body through one or more routes. Finally, the agent crosses a barrier or boundary to enter the body (Thompson & Schwartz Barcott, ). For the purposes of this NIH‐SSM theory modification, environmental exposures are defined as noninfectious agents.…”

“…Personal exposure monitoring can range from subjective responses to questionnaires to objective measures where external sensors are worn by people. The link between area concentrations of a given pollutant, body burden, and the total amount of a particular chemical present in a human's body depend on not only personal susceptibility and behavior, but also on time–activity patterns of the individual (Shin, McKone, Sohn, & Bennett, ; Thompson & Schwartz Barcott, ). Thus, the extent to which area monitoring measures individual exposure depends on the route of entry, amount of time and type of activity performed in the area, diffusion of the exposure across the area (e.g., differences among floor, breathing zone, and ceiling level), seasonality, proximity of the monitor to exposure sources, and proximity to the individual in the area.…”

“…Environment has also been included as a major concept in several nursing theories, such as the environment in the Florence Nightingale Theory of Nursing, Martha E. Rogers's Science of Unitary Human Beings, Dorothy Johnson's Behavioral System Model, and Betty Newman's System Model (Smith & Parker, ). Although these theories discuss the effect of environment on symptom development and outcomes, they do not explain the essential nature of the concept of exposure (Thompson & Schwartz Barcott, ).…”

“…This theory revision includes the addition of environmental exposures and environmental endotype concepts to the model, which are defined and described in detail in the results section. Environmental exposure in nursing has been defined in a previous concept analysis, and integrated with the NIH‐SSM here (Thompson & Schwartz Barcott, ). The concept of environmental endotype is an existing concept in interdisciplinary work, and is further developed and integrated for nursing here (Carr, Zeki, & Kraft, ).…”

Metal-Tolerant Thermophiles: From the Analysis of Resistance Mechanisms to their Biotechnological Exploitation

“…Furthermore, hazards associated with exposure to other metal ions like chromium [Cr(II)], mercury [Hg(I)], and arsenic [As(III) and As(V)], have been well established in the literature [7 -12]. The risk related to heavy metal exposure depends on the concentration and time [13]. Table 1 reports the concentration limits of the most common heavy metals in drinkable water, suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).…”