Nature Rx Research: Partnership with the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens
The Fort Worth Botanic Garden (FWBG) launched their Nature Rx initiative in April 2025, funded by International Paper. Dr. Morgan Jansing, TCU PhD grad and FWBG’s Director of Learning, teamed up with students and faculty from TCU Nursing, Nutritional Sciences, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, and Mathematics to launch a pilot research study of the Nature Rx initiative. Our sample consisted of senior adults, and we investigated the health benefits of three nature-based interventions: yoga in the garden, forest bathing, and therapeutic horticulture.
Findings from this pilot study revealed that positive affect (mood) significantly increased over time (p = .004), while negative affect demonstrated an overall time effect (p = .011). Salivary cortisol (biomarker for stress) significantly decreased (p < .001; d = 1.63), indicating reduced physiological stress. No significant changes were observed in global well-being, nature-relatedness, outdoor activity, or handgrip strength. In summary, our findings suggest that short-term, community-based nature interventions can reduce stress and enhance emotional well-being in older adults.
Nature Rx Research: Partnership with the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department
In the Park & Recreation Department’s master plan for Fort Worth, the GREENprint, a series of objectives focus on developing a park Rx program and community gardens to meet prevalent public health needs in our community for improved green space and access to healthy food and fresh produce. Partnerships for research are emerging to analyze the population health outcomes from increasing park engagement and park advocacy.
Nature Rx Education: Therapeutic Horticulture in the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department
In Fall 2026, twelve TCU Nursing students in their public health clinical rotation partnered with the Fort Worth Park and Recreation Department to evaluate the benefits of therapeutic horticulture among senior citizens participating in the Best Years Club at Como Community Center and Worth Heights Community Center. We are currently evaluating the results from the service-learning partnership for recommendations in Spring 2027.
Nature Rx Education: Garden-Based Service-Learning at Morningside Elementary
From 2019 to 2023, undergraduate Texas Christian University public health nursing (PHN) student teams completed service-learning projects under faculty supervision with Morningside Elementary School, a pre-K to 5 public school in the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), located in southeast Fort Worth. These projects are featured in seven poster presentations focused on food literacy and garden-based learning in children from pre-Kinder to fifth grade. Collaborators include Texas AgriLife Extension, Tarrant County Master Gardeners, and Blue Zones of Fort Worth. In the fall of 2019, the garden had lost its champions, and the new principal requested support from TCU Nursing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the garden committee adapted the evidence-based Learn Grow Eat Go! curriculum from the Junior Master Gardeners for use in specific classrooms across the school. TCU Nursing introduced the Blue Zones of Fort Worth gardening team to Morningside, and a sustainable model for garden-based learning is now in place through that partnership. TCU Nursing built capacity for gardening and was able to leave the Morningside Elementary Garden in good hands with Blue Zones and Made Greene leadership in the spring of 2023.
Nature Rx Education: Garden-Based Service-Learning at HOPE Farm
In the spring of 2022, Morningside students introduced us to HOPE Farm because of their attendance at this after-school program located less than one mile from their school. TCU PHN students were able to develop a maintenance plan for the vegetable garden, in collaboration with HOPE Farm leadership, and featured their work in two poster presentations focused on food literacy and environmental health literacy as central concepts of creation care. The students wrote a Tarrant Regional Water District Conservation Treasures grant to secure funding to renovate the HOPE Farm monarch waystation at HOPE Farm, which is now a project site of the Cross Timbers Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.