Leading by Doing: Promoting Staff Wellness in a Family Medicine Residency Clinic Jennifer Tieman, MD Cindy McHenry, RN

Disclosures Neither presenter has anything to disclose

Objectives Plan a program to promote staff wellness that is inclusive and appealing to staff from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of goals Provide staff education on healthy behaviors Increase staff confidence in counseling patients on healthy behaviors and lifestyle changes

Our Setting Goppert Trinity Family Care –A large, residency based family practice center –36 residents –18 faculty –40 staff members –Urban setting with a broad mix of patients (large proportion of underserved, inner city patients –Approximately 28,000 patient visits a year

Goppert Trinity Family Care

Our Staff

Our Goal Promote staff wellness Encourage team building Develop collegial and friendly work environment Learn healthy behaviors Feel more confident in counseling patients on wellness behaviors

Our concerns Previous programs focusing on weight loss or competition have had poor participation –Concern reported about not wanting to disclose weight in front of other participants –Concern reported about competitiveness being unappealing –Not every staff member has a weight loss goal

Our concerns Main goal was to promote staff wellness and create a program that staff WANTED to participate in Wanting to add as many participants as “experts” in a wellness component as possible Ultimate goal to promote lifetime healthy habits, not just for the duration of a competition

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge Teams of 4 were formed Teams could earn “miles” for exercise, healthy eating, or promoting their emotional well being All healthy activities were converted to “miles” Miles were totaled for each team

Miles: Exercise ExerciseMile equivalent Running or Walking1 mile = 1 mile Pedometer Steps2000 steps = 1 mile Light Activity = Gardening, bowling, snowmobiling, painting, car washing, fishing, window cleaning, golf (without cart), slow treading in pool, dusting or vacuuming 20 minutes = 1 mile Moderate Activity = Softball, weightlifting, shoveling snow, dancing, barn cleaning, racquetball, tennis, volleyball, skiing easy, handball, yoga, ice skating recreational swimming, recreational, competitive table tennis 10 minutes = 1 mile

Miles: Exercise Vigorous Activity = Exercise classes: i.e. (spinning, step, kickboxing, body pump, circuit training) basketball, soccer, cross country skiing, hard mogul skiing, martial arts, boxing sparring, chopping wood, swimming fast laps, competitive dancing 8 minutes = 1 mile Biking 3 miles = 1 mile

Miles: Healthy Eating Healthy EatingMile equivalent Calorie Log for weight loss100 calorie deficit = 1 mile 5 Fruits and Vegetables a dayEach day = 2 miles No sugar sweetened beverages Each day = 1 mile

Miles: Emotional Well Being Emotional Well BeingMile Equivalent Time devoted to an activity for your emotional well being 20 min = 1 mile Volunteer activities20 min = 1 mile Other activities for your emotional well being Each activity = 1 mile (talk to leaders ahead of time!)

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge GTFC Spring Wellness Program Goal Setting My goals for the spring 10 week program Emotional Well Being ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Healthy Eating­­­ _________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Exercise__________________________________________ _________________________________________________

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge Log Date Emotional Wellbeing Move More! Healthy Eating Miles

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Lunch time learning During the challenge, averaging once a week, we scheduled a lunchtime learning meeting, and invited everyone willing to participate as an expert All staff were invited to participate, whether they were participating in the challenge or not

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Lunch time learning Examples: –Lunchtime yoga led by one of our first year residents –Core fitness taught by a third year resident –Mindfulness taught by a faculty member

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Lunch time learning Healthy food potluck –Several “healthy food” potlucks were planned during the 10 week course –Participants were encouraged to bring foods that fell within healthy guidelines (lower fat, high fiber, fresh ingredients whenever possible) –Participants were encouraged to share recipes

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Daily Motivation Daily s were sent to all staff –Healthy eating tips –Exercise tips –Motivational tips

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Daily Motivation Initially planned to be just a few days, but was so popular that was continued throughout the challenge Many nurses kept favorite tips as handouts to share with patients during and after the challenge was completed

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Daily Motivation

Don't Let Tricky Food Label Claims Fool You Food manufacturers like to entice you to buy their products so they use bright colors on the packages along with inviting photos of the products, and they may make some nutritional or health claim on the label. If a product is reduced in fat or made with natural ingredients, for example, it's got to be a healthful food right? natural ingredients

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories Darren Presley, R3 –Participated as an expert by teaching 2 lunch time classes on weight lifting and core fitness –Set exercise goals for himself and showed remarkable inventiveness to accomplish them Ran stairs while on call Brought gym clothes and jogged on the hospital “walking path” at 2 in the morning on night float Committed to healthy eating, especially while on call

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories

Stephanie Powell, Medical Office Specialist

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories Stephanie Powell, Medical Office Specialist –Committed to healthy eating during our challenge –Walked on her lunch hour every day –Lost 17 pounds during the 10 week challenge, and has maintained 90% of that for the last 9 months. –Continues to use tips she learned during the program to maintain healthier habits

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories A group of residents joined me for the 44 mile “Brew to Brew” relay from Kansas City to Lawrence Kansas, each running one or more of 10 relay legs during the day.

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories

Each week teams submitted their “mileage” totals At the end of 10 weeks, grand totals were calculated The winning team of 4 earned over 1750 miles in 10 weeks! Winning team each received massage gift certificates for the therapist in our integrative medicine clinic

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Our Stories An final “end of challenge” potluck was held, and the grand prize awarded All participants were entered into a drawing for other prizes (cookbooks and fitness journals) An exit survey was conducted

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge Survey results –Participants were highly likely to state they would participate again 3.92 on a 5 point Likert scale –Participants felt strongly that they had learned about healthy behaviors from the program 4.25 on a 5 point scale

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge Survey results –Participants felt more confident that they could pursue healthy behaviors 4.17 on a 5 point scale –Importantly, participants felt they were more confident counseling patients about behaviors due to the challenge 3.92 on a 5 point scale

GTFC Spring Wellness Challenge: Summary It is possible to plan a staff wellness program that is well received by a diverse group of staff The main goal was encouraging healthy behaviors and long term lifestyle changes rather than a short term competition Cost was minimized by utilizing our own staff as experts as much as possible (also encouraging collaboration on how to incorporate new behaviors)

Participants felt strongly that they learned more about healthy behaviors personally Participants also felt strongly that they were more confident counseling patients regarding healthy behaviors and lifestyle changes after participating in our wellness challenge

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