NLN Breaks New Ground with Vision Statement on Integrating Chemosensation in Nursing Education Curricula

NLN Breaks New Ground with Vision Statement on Integrating Chemosensation in Nursing Education Curricula

Assessment & Nursing Care of Sensory Dysfunctions to Address Widespread Challenges to Patient Health, Safety & Welfare

Washington, DC — The National League for Nursing, the nation’s first nursing association, has issued a second new NLN Vision Statement this year focused on Integrating Chemosensation (Smell and Taste) in Nursing Education Curricula. This is a call to action to nursing education programs, deans and directors, faculty, and clinical practice partners to remedy a distressing gap in knowledge, skills and competencies in chemosensory science, which covers functions like taste and smell.

As millions of people worldwide struggle with varying degrees of loss of their chemosensory functions, most nurses learn little, if anything, about these issues in standard programs of nursing education. Nurses, then, are too often unprepared to address potential safety hazards and other serious challenges to patient health and quality of life that arise from these disorders.

The timing of this NLN Vision Statement couldn’t be more urgent. America’s older population has seen an increasing number of patients as their abilities to smell and taste, and other sensory faculties, decline with age. Many older adults experience debilitating depression as their complaints are overlooked or dismissed by medical professionals who may be ill equipped to assess and treat the problems associated with these disabling disorders. 

Research has confirmed that taste, smell, and chemesthesis, the detection of chemical stimuli through nerve endings that produce sensations like burning or cooling, strongly influence human health. Nutrition; medication compliance; awareness of common hazards, like the smell of gas; social connection; and mental health are all impacted by the functioning of our senses.

“The time has come for nursing education to take a comprehensive approach to integrating chemosensation into our curricula, establishing instruction in assessments and care plans as well as creating a research agenda to determine nurse actions following patient outcomes. This new NLN Vision Statement offers a blueprint to enlighten all health care providers about how these actions can benefit the overall system of health care delivery to their patients,” said NLN Chair Yolanda VanRiel, PhD, RN, MEDSURG-BC, OCN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, chair of the Department of Nursing, North Carolina Central University and patient placement coordinator at First Health of the Carolinas-Moore Regional Hospital.

“Vision Statements from the National League for Nursing help drive transformation in nursing education, practice and research. We urge especially nursing leaders and faculty to fill the knowledge gap in chemosensation curricula by following this evidence-based call to action so that future nurses can provide comprehensive and compassionate care,” said NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN.

Integrating Chemosensation (Smell and Taste) in Nursing Education Curricula grew out of an inter-professional Strategic Action Group the National League for Nursing convened to collaborate in its development and publication. The team included patient advocates from the Smell and Taste Association of North America (STANA) who shared lived experiences of how chemosensory disorders impacted daily life.

To read the complete text of Integrating Chemosensation (Smell and Taste) in Nursing Education Curricula, visit NLN.org.

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