Posts from — January 2009

When it comes to working wellness into your workforce, you want someone who knows the ins and outs of health promotion, and who can counsel workers and provide primary care – all within the context of the current regulatory and legal environment.

AAOHN’s survey found that more than 50% of workers (61 percent) want to receive health and wellness information from a healthcare professional, such as a consultant or an on-site occupational health nurse (OHN), compared to pamphlets or brochures (18 percent) or human resources staff (15 percent).

OHNs can develop, implement and evaluate components of work site Workplace Wellness Programs such as testing initiatives, exercise/fitness courses, Stress Management Programs, smoking cessation, nutrition and weight control initiatives, as well as chronic illness management initiatives. Plus, OHNs can help workers navigate through complicated health plans and may even serve as a triage point between workers and their individual healthcare providers.

Employees might refrain from seeing their healthcare provider when it means time away from work, inconvenient parking, waiting time in the office and co-pays. In situations where workers are under treatment for chronic diseases like heart disease, on-site nurses can routinely monitor risk factors such as blood pressure or cholesterol on a regular basis.

It’s frequently easier for an worker to ask an on-site nurse for information about symptoms or prescription medication than it is to schedule a follow-up visit to a individual healthcare provider. Advantages realized by organizations include enhanced worker morale and retention, a recruitment advantage, increased productivity and decreased time away from work.

In organizations with a safety department, the OHN can evaluate and address work-related health issues, including participation in workstation evaluations to correct potential ergonomic problems, and proactively addressing muscle strains by developing stretching initiatives and involving workers in leading stretches.

Good for waistlines & your bottom line

By Sandra Simpson, APRN, BC, COHN-S, manager in Occupational Health Services at a Fortune 500 organization in Memphis, Tenn., and a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). For a copy of the AAOHN wellness survey, visit www.aaohn.org, or call (800) 241-8014, x0.

In today’s hectic world, most of us are spending more time at work, and have increasingly less time to look after our health. For a long time, organizations have understood the benefits associated with keeping workers well – increased productivity from decreased absenteeism and lowered disability claims. For these reasons, coupled with the fact that many organizations realized double-digit healthcare costs last year, organizations should consider Workplace Wellness Programs as a way to keep workers healthy.

But just how important are these initiatives to workers? How frequently are they willing to participate in initiatives designed to positively impact their health and wellness? Who do workers trust to provide them with important information about their health?

Answers to these questions and more were recently garnered from a study commissioned by the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Inc. (AAOHN).

The AAOHN survey questioned 500 workers nationwide about their perceptions of Workplace Wellness Programs. More than three-quarters of all participants indicated these initiatives are a good way to improve their overall health, and nearly 60 percent consider these offerings an incentive to remain with their current employer. worker retention and turnover impact the bottom line, so building Workplace Wellness Programs into the work site culture is a valuable way to help retain talented workers in addition to enhancing personal health and workplace productivity.

The Health wish list

Employees appear to have their own agenda when it comes to their health. With new national security threats, new economic pressures and work/balance issues, it’s not surprising that 85 percent of survey respondents cited Stress Management Programs as a priority topic for work site wellness.

In addition to stress, other preferred topic areas include testing initiatives (84 percent), exercise/physical fitness initiatives (84 percent), health insurance education (81 percent) and disease management seminars (80 percent).

In addition to lifestyle and personal health issues, those asked expressed concern about work-related health issues, including strains and injuries resulting from lifting or task-oriented muscle repetition, exposure to harmful substances, personal injury, vision changes due to computer work and workplace violence.

What you should do

With such a broad range of health concerns, a primary goal for organizations is finding a way to proactively address the health needs of the largest number of workers, and effectively change unhealthy behaviors, promote wellness and ward off disease and illness.

Printed materials such as brochures, posters, fliers or pamphlets present an easy solution. But it’s important to remember that different employees require different formats for learning. A good rule of thumb: provide information in a variety of learning formats such as videos, pamphlets, health-related quizzes, display boards, Lunch-and-learn presentations and reimbursement or incentive programs.

This assumes you’ve overcome the first hurdle – getting employees to sign on to a Workplace Wellness Program. While survey respondents indicated health and Workplace Wellness Programs are important, just six out of 10 (60 percent) reported that they participated in the Workplace Wellness Programs at their organizations. The other 40 percent cited lack of interest and lack of time as deterrents.

This points to the need for a comprehensive, structured Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative using a innovative approach, with an incentive for participation and effective program marketing.

By investing in an organized Corporate Health and Wellness Initiative headed by a qualified healthcare professional such as an on-site nurse, organizations can give workers the access to the health information they want, and increase participation and generate interest at the same time.

The result: workers become savvier healthcare consumers who feel more in charge of their individual health. And healthier workers make for a healthier bottom line.