Introduction:

The environmental crisis has been suggested to be one of the greatest threats to public health. However, this phenomenon is given little attention during the training of health professionals.

Objective:

To identify the social representations about the teaching-learning of nursing care in the context of the global environmental crisis, from the perspective of university teaching nurses in Chile.

Methods:

A qualitative, descriptive and hermeneutic study was carried out, with a process-based approach using social representations. The method for producing information was the focused interview. The sampling was theoretical and the sample size was determined by saturation criteria (n=15). Triangulation of sources was performed and inductive qualitative content analysis was used.

Results:

Three thematic lines appeared: 1. climate change and environment within the curriculum; 2. opportunities as part of teaching and learning about climate change and environment (including four categories: students' sensitivity towards environmental issues, professors' personal motivations, facilitating subjects, and institutional policies); and 3. obstacles in teaching and learning about climate change and environment (including three categories: biomedical model, resistance to change, and scarcity of interdisciplinarity).

Conclusions:

Topics related to the global environmental crisis are not considered within the nursing curriculums; they are included in subjects only when the professors are interested in doing so.