Using metrics including unscheduled absenteeism, workman’s compensation claims, patient handling injuries, staff participation in biometric screening and participant satisfaction, an employee wellness program was evaluated in 2011. Based on the success of this program, the nurse practitioner students and an employee wellness team have continued to adjust this evidence based program over the past five years by tracking participation and introducing new social media methods of reach to the target population with health promotion messaging.
Methods
One unit at an academic health center was selected by the Employee Wellness team for delivery of the “Stepping Stones to Wellness program” over a six-month period. The unit management and staff was given a selection of weekly wellness topics to choose from and the Employee Wellness Team added other important topics. The nurse practitioner students were responsible for presenting the weekly health topics on a bulletin board, Facebook postings, Twitter messages and personal interactions. Biometric screening was made available on the unit and management worked to free up staff to attend these sessions. Health coaching was provided by the nurse practitioner students and S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and timely) goal setting was encouraged. Nurse practitioner students received training in Motivational Interviewing and were instructed to use this during the health coaching session.
Results
In the fifth year of offering the unit based Stepping Stones to Wellness program, the goal for biometric screening of 60 employees was exceeded (n=68). Participant satisfaction with the program was high: 100% surveyed report they feel this offering made a positive difference and 100% surveyed hope to have this program replicated and offered again. Open ended questions indicated an appreciation for the NP students’ help in the area of goal setting and visits to the night shift. The Facebook posting reached 475 (eating disorders) to 3428 (substance abuse) people depending on the topic; blogs views ranged from 35 for seasonal affective disorder to 589 for anxiety. The educational bulletin board was evaluated by a range of participants -10 for seasonal affective disorder to 22 for anxiety. All evaluation data from this evidence based program will be presented.
Discussion
Wellness offering must show a return on investment in order to be sustained. This unit-based wellness program was a 6-month comprehensive and integrated program with a primary focus on self-care and health education. The program initially paid for itself and may have contributed to a return on investment of $3,745.17 by not paying unscheduled time off in comparison period. This unit-based wellness program using incentives, has continued to yield high participation and satisfaction over the past five years. This project found that bringing health promotion activities directly onto a hospital unit has been cost effective and satisfactory to the participants, as well as, nurse practitioner students.
Further research
This quality assurance project lacks the rigor and controls necessary for a research study and since it was conducted in one academic medical center, replication is recommended. Further research utilizing larger samples, testing unit-based nurse health promotion activities, is indicated.