Climate Change and Nursing Care in Major Chronic Diseases: A Scoping Review of Nursing Perspectives and Roles

Background/Objectives: Climate change produces more pronounced health outcomes in individuals with chronic disease, and nurses are strategically positioned to recognise, prevent, and manage these effects; however, the scope of this relationship within the nursing discipline remains unclear. This review aimed to map the literature on the impacts of climate change on chronic diseases and the associated nursing care, roles, and interventions. Methods: Following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidance, international (PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library) and Turkish (TR Dizin, DergiPark, YÖK) databases were searched without date restriction between 2 and 22 June 2026. Of 957 records identified, 721 remained after removing 236 duplicates on import; a further 36 duplicates were identified and removed during Rayyan screening, leaving 685 records for title/abstract screening; following full-text screening, 23 sources were included. Results: Most sources were published between 2023 and 2026 (73.9%) and were narrative reviews (43.5%); only four studies used a randomised or cohort design (two RCTs, one baseline-characteristics report from an RCT cohort, and one prospective cohort study), alongside one pilot cohort study. Respiratory and multisystem/multimorbid conditions were most common (n = 6 each, 26.1%), with general/multiple climate framing (n = 9, 39.1%) and extreme heat (n = 6, 26.1%) the predominant exposures. Sources came from 10 countries, led by the United States, Türkiye, and Australia, with nurse-affiliated authorship in a majority of sources (65.2%). Patient/family education (73.9%) and environmental risk assessment (65.2%) were the leading nursing roles; telehealth, curriculum integration, and the researcher role were each represented in ≤17.4% of sources. Conclusions: Research on the climate change–chronic disease relationship from a nursing perspective remains limited and largely descriptive, reflecting preliminary evidence of nurse-level knowledge gaps that warrants confirmation in larger samples, a weak experimental evidence base, and evidence not yet translated into disease- and season-specific protocols. Quantitative and intervention research is needed in underrepresented categories within this review’s defined scope, such as metabolic disease, alongside stronger nurse-led advocacy, policy, and research roles; because mental health and maternal/newborn outcomes were not comprehensively targeted by the search strategy, whether these represent genuine evidence gaps rather than areas simply outside this review’s scope remains to be established by future, broader-scope reviews.