Essentials of the Nurse + Engineer: Integrating Systems Engineering Modeling

Abstract Previously, we reported on the development and pilot testing of a course to teach principles of systems engineering to students of environmental engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The prior publication included quantitative feedback from students collected through anonymous end-of-semester surveys. Recently, we explored the interface of public environmental health nursing and additional disciplines of engineering (i.e., architectural and civil engineering) as further subject matter for the application of systems engineering, particularly in the area of sustainable development. According to the United Nations, the Sustainable Development Goals support the five pillars of people, planet, prosperity, partnerships, and peace, which are known as the 5 Ps of sustainable development. Here within, we share: 1) background on the development of the nurse+engineer, which is a newly described V-shaped professional; 2) content of two course modules that may be used to teach partnership between engineers and nurses to address the challenges of sustainable development using systems engineering; and 3) initial qualitative feedback from students collected through anonymous end-of-semester surveys. Our results suggest that the integration of systems engineering across a range of engineering disciplines (e.g., architectural, civil, and environmental engineering) with the profession of nursing (e.g., public environmental health nursing) offers an opportunity to promote interprofessional education to advance sustainable development, including areas such as life-cycle assessment.