Cristina Alvarez Garcia

Cristina Alvarez Garcia serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nursing at the University of Jaén, Spain, specializing in environmental health integration within nursing curricula. Her work bridges clinical practice with sustainability education to advance climate-smart healthcare systems.

She earned her PhD from the University of Jaén in 2019 with doctoral research focused on developing and validating children's environmental health assessment tools (ChEHK-Q and ChEHS-Q) through the e-NurSus Children intervention, supervised by Dr. Isabel María López Medina and Dr. Carmen Álvarez Nieto.

Her research program centers on environmental health competencies in nursing education, with significant contributions to sustainability curricula development and sexual/reproductive health education. Key methodologies include quasi-experimental designs, systematic reviews, and psychometric validation of instruments. Recent work explores innovative pedagogies like gamification and augmented reality for climate change awareness, alongside drone technology applications in emergency care. This interdisciplinary approach addresses critical gaps in preparing healthcare professionals for planetary health challenges.

Analysis of her 2022-2025 publications reveals a strategic pivot toward actionable sustainability frameworks in nursing education, with increasing emphasis on climate resilience and environmental stewardship. Her research consistently employs mixed-methods approaches to evaluate educational interventions across European and Asian contexts.

As an active member of the Nursing and Innovation in Health Care research group, she collaborates on projects developing assessment tools like the Sustainability in Nursing Education Toolkit (NursusToolkit) and advancing transnational environmental health pedagogy.