Developing community relationships to enhance well-being in a worksite wellness program.

BACKGROUND: Wellness programs traditionally focus on achieving outcomes such as health improvement, lowered health risks, decreased absenteeism, improved morale and decreased health care costs. Many programs emphasize physical wellness with more recent inclusion of social, emotional, and environmental dimensions. That change is referenced as the migration of wellness programs into well-being efforts. OBJECTIVE: Addressing all elements of well-being is critical for effective wellness program delivery. DESIGN: Recognition of the positive impact related to community well-being is growing in the literature. When people connect with others at work and develop positive and effective relationships across boundaries, a culture of health grows within organizations. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: This paper reviews three community well-being initiatives implemented within one university worksite and describes the effectiveness of such programs in building community well-being.

Transformational leadership practices of nurse leaders in professional nursing associations.

OBJECTIVE: This study describes the transformational leadership (TL) practices of nurse leaders in professional nursing associations (PNAs). BACKGROUND: Professional nursing associations are vehicles to provide educational opportunities for nurses as well as leadership opportunities for members. Little has been published about the leadership practices of PNA members. METHOD: E-mail surveys of 448 nurse leaders in PNAs were conducted in 2013 using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). RESULTS: The top 2 TL practices of these nurse leaders were enabling others to act and encouraging the heart. Respondents with more leadership training reported higher TL practices. CONCLUSION: This is the 1st study to describe TL practices of nurse leaders in PNAs. Results of this study show that nurse leaders of PNAs emulate practices of TL. Transformational leaders can mobilize and direct association members in reaching shared values, objectives, and outcomes. Understanding TL practices of nurse leaders in PNAs are important to the future of nursing in order to enable nurses to lead change and advance health through these organizations.

Leadership behaviors of frontline staff nurses.

BACKGROUND: A recommendation in the Institute of Medicine's report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, challenges the nursing profession to enhance nursing's leadership role in health care redesign. METHOD: This descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study examined the self-perceived leadership behaviors of RNs enrolled in a clinical ladder career pathway. A self-report survey was conducted using the Leadership Practice Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. RESULTS: Significant associations between continuous and categorical demographic factors and ladder levels were reported. Nurses with more experience showed fewer leadership behaviors. CONCLUSION: Leadership development is necessary for nurses in all areas of practice. The findings from this study provide evidence of the strengths and weaknesses in leadership behaviors of staff clinical RNs who often make frontline decisions for patients.

Mindfulness matters in the classroom: A pilot study of a university-wide classroom-based brief mindfulness program.

Objective: The aims of this pilot study were: first, to assess the impact of a brief classroom-based mindfulness program on students' reported levels of mindfulness, well-being, and stress; and, second, to understand students' experiences of participating in the program.Participants: Students at a private midwestern research-intensive university, 133 (16%) students completed either the study's pretest or post-test survey.Methods: The study had an observational design using pre- and post-test survey responses from students taking courses from faculty who were trained to facilitate brief classroom-based mindfulness activities.Results: Students who participated in the semester-long program reported reduced levels of stress and increased mindfulness. Qualitative data indicate that students found the program to be beneficial.Conclusions: Brief classroom-based mindfulness activities led by faculty may have benefits for students in higher education settings. More research is recommended to better understand the impact of mindfulness in the classroom on students and faculty.

Frequency of nurse-physician collaborative behaviors in an acute care hospital.

A new culture bolstering collaborative behavior among nurses and physicians is needed to merge the unique strengths of both professions into opportunities to improve patient outcomes. To meet this challenge it is fundamental to comprehend the current uses of collaborative behaviors among nurses and physicians. The purpose of this descriptive study was to delineate frequently used from infrequently used collaborative behaviors of nurses and physicians in order to generate data to support specific interventions for improving collaborative behavior. The setting was an acute care hospital, and participants included 114 registered nurses and 33 physicians with active privileges. The Nurse-Physician Collaboration Scale was used to measure the frequency of use of nurse-physician collaborative behaviors self-reported by nurses and physicians. The background variables of gender, age, education, ethnicity, years of experience, years practiced at the current acute care hospital, practice setting and professional certification were accessed. In addition to analyzing the frequency of collaborative behaviors, this study compares levels of collaborative behavior reported by nurses and physicians.

Attitudes towards collaboration and servant leadership among nurses, physicians and residents.

A descriptive, comparative study was conducted to examine the attitudes of nurses, physicians and residents towards collaboration and to assess their self-perception of servant leadership characteristics. The Jefferson Scale of Attitudes toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration and the Barbuto-Wheeler Servant Leadership Questionnaire were utilized for data collection. Registered nurses (RNs) (n = 2,660), physicians (n = 447) and residents (n = 171) in a Southeastern United States health system were surveyed via the intranet; there were 497 responses for analysis. The response rate should be considered and generalizations made with caution regarding the study results. RN scores were higher for both total scores and subscales as compared to physician/resident groups for collaboration and servant leadership. There was a weak positive correlation between collaboration and servant leadership in the RN group and no significant correlation between the variables in the physician/resident group. Findings from this study have implications for nursing and physician education and practice and may serve as a framework for future studies. Representative samples are needed to gain further insight and to guide future research.

Developing a worksite lactation program.

This article describes the literature about worksite lactation programs and how such a service might be established to enhance breastfeeding success and lead to healthful outcomes for the mother and the baby. Because studies have demonstrated consistently that breastfeeding is associated with lower rates of infant illness, and that full-time maternal employment decreases breastfeeding duration, establishing an onsite lactation program within a corporation or organization could assist employees in maintaining ideal nutrition for their infants. Net gains for the organization, such as decreased absenteeism and fewer healthcare benefit claims can occur. The author suggests that the establishment of such a program by a nurse can be a successful nursing intervention.

The decision-making process of workers in using sick time.

The cost of employee absenteeism in the United States is significant in terms of sick pay, overtime costs, replacement personnel compensation, and lost productivity. Little is known about what workers consider when deciding to use sick time. Previous studies have examined work absence from an array of perspectives, including resulting work strain, job satisfaction, and job security, but absenteeism in the workplace has not been examined in terms of decision making. To scrutinize workers' decisions about using sick time, a descriptive pilot study was undertaken with a convenience sample (n = 94) of working college students. The responses to the survey revealed that the majority of the workers (73.4%) used sick time because they were too ill to work. These results are in direct opposition to previous research and suggest that workers may need education about preventing and managing minor illnesses before an absence is needed. Supporting and engaging employees and their significant others in healthy worker programs, regular surveillance examinations, and illness prevention strategies are wise investments in companies' financial futures. Future research should include a comparative study of worker absenteeism between worksites with occupational health nurses and those without nurses.

The effect of a holistic program on health-promoting behaviors in hospital registered nurses.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of a holistic program, the Collaborative Care Model (CCM) Program, and the development of a self-care plan on health-promoting behaviors in hospital nurses. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental, pretest, posttest, repeated measure, comparison-group design was used. METHOD: The study was conducted in a large, academic medical center in the northeast. The experimental group included registered nurses (RNs) from units in one institution introduced to the CCM and development of a self-care plan in an 8-hour program. The control group received no intervention. Data were collected using the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II instrument (HPLP II); a 52-question Likert-type scale with six subscales examining health-promoting behaviors. FINDINGS: Using repeated measures analysis of variance there was a significant increase (p = .02) in the overall HPLP II mean, spirituality ( p = .04), interpersonal relations (p = .04), and nutrition scores (p = .04) of the experimental group as compared over time with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The CCM plus the development of a self-care plan significantly increased overall health promoting behaviors, and spirituality, interpersonal relations, and nutrition scores in these RNs.

Demands of immigration among Indian nurses who immigrated to the United States.

PURPOSE: To describe the demands of immigration of Indian nurses who immigrated to the United States, and to compare the demands of immigration of Indian nurses who immigrated less than 3 years ago to those who immigrated 3 or more years ago. METHODS: A comparative descriptive design was used to examine the Demands of Immigration (DI) total and subscale scores of Indian nurses (n = 105) who immigrated to the United States between 1985 and 2005, who were categorized into two groups: those who immigrated less than 3 years ago (n = 44) and those who immigrated 3 or more years ago (n = 61). The DI total score and subscale scores (loss, novelty, occupation, discrimination, language and not feeling at home) are reported. Study findings are related to previous research on immigration of women and nurses. Recommendations for future research are included. RESULTS: There was a significant difference between groups in total DI scores and language and novelty subscale scores. CONCLUSION: Additional research in these areas could help to assess the demands of immigration of Indian nurses and immigrant nurses from other countries.