Lastly, building a business case for the wellness initiative is an important part of the process. According to previously noted literature review, it makes good business sense. Employees with healthy behaviors, on average, are more productive when at work and incur lower medical costs than workers with less healthy behaviors. In writing a wellness operating plan, several business aspects should be addressed like the overall goal of the program, the specific objectives, the implementation strategies with a timeline, the communication methods to be used, and a detailed budget (Goetzel et. al., 2004).
Design Programs to Drive Commitment
How to keep it going strong? As previously noted, determining employees’ expectations and promoting programs can help create a more positive perception of the organization and that is important. Therefore, once the assessments have been completed to supply the base line data, employees’ needs and wants have been determined, and the leadership support needed is where it should be, one can almost “jump in” with the activity with an exception of one final item – assessment of readiness of the employees to change. If the assessments used in designing the wellness initiatives contained questions regarding this topic, this information will be at hand. However, it is important to note that employees may move back and forth in the stages of readiness. The employee needs to be “met where he is” and even small steps towards healthier lifestyles need to be encouraged (Kotter, 1996; Lowe, 2004). Additionally, communication is very important and it will be described a little bit later in this paper under its own heading.
Furthermore, maintaining interest is an important factor. It is not surprising that just as ba...
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...cts interest. Each stage mentioned above is very important to the success of the overall communication plan. In order to drive maximum impact on employee knowledge, perception, and behavior, communications should be well planned out and carried out throughout the entire implementation of the wellness initiative as well as afterwards to keep employees up to speed on what is happening. One again, message consistency is critical in driving wellness participation and commitment. The purpose is to ensure that wellness communications deliver a consistent message, style, and tone to employees (Hunnicutt, et. al., 1999). Research shows that consistency across benefits communications increases employee knowledge and helps change their perception about benefits—which ultimately, impacts their benefits behaviors (Lowe, 2004). See Appendix B for Consistency Checklist Template.
Direct Observation during access to food. Settings varied but study was conducted over 28 days.
Employee wellness programs, also known as a “worksite wellness program”, are programs that are designed to promote and support the health, safety, and well being of a company’s employees. Wellness programs are meant to improve the health of the staff, their morale, and in turn also help improve their productivity. There are many components that make up employee wellness programs, for example; Health Screenings, Health Fairs, Fitness classes, Smoking cessation classes, and even wellness issue workshops. Employers have begun adopting these programs in hopes of helping their employees while they are at an age when health interventions can still help transform their long-term health choice. This paper will focus on trends found between employee weight and productivity, and the impacts these could have on a business overall.
campaign and technical assistance to promote the benefits of worksite health promotion. A new CDC
Chronic illness can consist of a single or multiple illnesses that last over a period of time (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Hansen, 2015). For this assignment, I will choose a chronic illness that could affect a patient in my nursing practice. I will discuss three ways I could promote the health of the patient and the family dealing with the chronic illness. I will end this discussion with a conclusion.
...program of nationwide health-promotion and disease-prevention goals set by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The goals and objectives of Healthy People 2020 was predicated on a health system accessible to all Americans that would integrate personal health care and population-based public health activities. The goals were first set in 1979, for the following decade. The goals were subsequently updated for Healthy People 2000, Healthy People 2010, and Healthy People 2020. Healthy People 2020 was developed through a broad consultation process, built on the best scientific knowledge, and designed to measure programs over time. It is composed of 467 specific objectives organized into 28 focus areas, as well as two overarching goals. The two goals are "increase quality and years of healthy life" and "eliminate health disparities".
Environmental and intellectual wellness were my highest ranked scores and my lowest ranked score was in the occupational domain. Through observing the other domains of wellness I believe that this makes perfect sense in relation to my lifestyle and myself as a whole. The highest scores are due to my interest and satisfaction in these areas. Both environmental and intellectual wellness had factors which I voluntarily partake in my daily life. The lowest ranked score is due to an overall lack of interest and comfort. My wellness scores do not come as a surprise to me and solely offer different viewpoints of what I think properly describes my current health.
Reflecting back on the all the information learned this semester, I am amazed at how much I learned. Working in healthcare makes you aware of a lot of the topics that were covered, however, when you apply it to yourself, in a personal relationship, it becomes much more powerful what the impact of each topic is.
Health promotion consists of all actions that encourage maximum spiritual, mental and physical functions despite of whether an individual is ill or well. Most of these plans are aimed at bringing positive lifestyle changes (Van Leuven, & Prion, 2007). A major core competency for all NPs is health promotion. Through regular screening, immunizations and counselling, NPs can guide their patients towards the goal of health promotion and disease prevention. As a future NP, my goal is to provide patient-centered, holistic care focusing on health promotion and sickness prevention. I also believe that an understanding of practice models like Pender’s Health Promotion Model will enable me to empower patients to obtain self-efficacy and behavior specific changes.
When thinking of my overall health, a few aspects stand out that I think I could definitely improve on. When I think my current personal wellness I think it is fairly decent. There are definitely people out there far worse than myself. It could be better because there is always room for improvement. I’m a big fan of personal growth. To me if a person decides to stop growing or wanting to better themselves either mentally, physically or emotiontally. Then whats the real purpose for living? I am a fairly active person. I love to hike, stay fit and eat healthy. Living a healthy lifestyle isn’t hard for me which I think definitely contributes to a wellness.
The second ideal is healthy weight, this includes access to “tools and resources that any employee can use to help reach and maintain a healthy weight” (HealthAhead). The final portion of this program is Healthy in a Click, this is a computer based program offering access to information regarding living a healthy lifestyle including, recipes, wellness topics, and ways to challenge each other to fitness related goals (HealthAhead). This program is clearly working to help avoid downtime as the corporation has shown a 12% decrease in health related absenteeism, which can result in a huge gain regarding overall output per employee (GE Goals and
Physical, emotional, intellectual, interpersonal, spiritual, and environmental wellness are all considered the six dimensions of wellness with occupational wellness being the possible seventh. But what are these exactly? And how do they apply to me and my health and wellness?
Human resources will need to place emphasis on employee wellness my initiating programs that “include work-life balance processes, stress management, and therapy programs, and facilitating an open dialogue about mental health and illness to remove much of the stigma that plagues the conversation and ailments (Guppta, 2016).” By utilizing flexible work schedule options, demanding jobs with high-stress levels are possible because employees’ free time does not have to be sacrificed.
If one wants to live an enjoyable, fulfilling life they must know what it truly means to be well. Living a wellness lifestyle means incorporating all aspects of what it takes to flourish as a human being. It goes beyond the health of the physical body and incorporates the important social, emotional, and spiritual factors that play a part in every person’s life in one way or another. Knowing how to act correctly, control our feelings, channel our frustrations, and improve in each dimension of wellness will lead to a satisfactory life. Spiritual, physical, emotional, nutritional, and social wellness define the biggest components of life and thriving in them is vital.
Throughout our healthy brains, healthy bodies course so far, we have learned time and time again about the strong and important relationship between our brains and our bodies. Health and wellness is not one single thing, it is a collection of practices, attitudes and ways of being in the world, which help us cultivate the best form of ourselves. Finding and understanding the ways in which we can best take care of ourselves, and then applying them, gives us the opportunity to improve our physical, cognitive, mental and emotional wellbeing. Embodying our healthiest selves helps not only us, it helps those around us by providing a positive example about how to exist within our own bodies, and exist within the world. Throughout this paper, we will
According to the text, wellness is defined as an "integrated and dynamic level of functioning oriented toward maximizing potential, dependent on self-responsibility." It involves both preventive health behaviors and a shift in thinking and attitude. Wellness is a lifelong promise to oneself of growth and achievement in each of the seven dimensions: emotional, spiritual, physical, occupational, intellectual, environmental, and social. It means a lifetime of ongoing change and always striving toward higher levels healthy and successful living. This means, ultimately, that one must live a life that caters to each of those dimensions both individually and collectively. Not living a healthy lifestyle, can have damaging effects on both health and life, and not only yours but the people that are around you. An unhealthy lifestyle means more illness and more expenses to treat those illnesses. This means a bigger burden on an already challenged and over-budgeted healthcare system. Poor health also means more time lost at work, less quality recreational time, and shorter lifespans. Not to mention, the onset of major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.