Collaborative Strategies to Improve Nutrition Security and Education: Lessons Learned During a Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic intensified disparities for underserved populations as accessing resources became more difficult. Dairy Council of California launched the Let's Eat Healthy initiative to address nutrition security through collaborative solutions in the school environment. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY: To ensure nutrition security for children and families, nutritious food and nutrition education must go hand-in-hand. Improving access to high quality food can help address the health disparities that exist for people who are at increased risk for food insecurity. Nutrition education supports students' holistic learning and social and emotional learning skills. Nutrition education models must be increasingly flexible in the face of ongoing challenges. Collaborative efforts to connect food access hubs, such as schools, with support and resources to provide evidence-based nutrition education and agricultural literacy can equip individuals and communities with the knowledge, skills, and ability to make nutrient-rich food choices. CONCLUSIONS: Investments and strategies in nutrition security that utilize the Individual plus Policy, System, and Environmental (I + PSE) model, such as the Let's Eat Healthy initiative, will effectively influence positive behavior change and improve community health. Navigating challenges in a rapidly changing environment requires people and organizations to work together, across disciplines, to leverage knowledge, experience, resources, expertise, and creative thinking. Improving access to healthy food and nutrition education will be most effective when done through collaboration.

Spirituality and job satisfaction among hospice interdisciplinary team members.

As a continuing effort to enhance the quality of palliative care for the dying, this study examined (1) the prevalence of spirituality among hospice interdisciplinary team (IDT) members; (2) whether spirituality is related to job satisfaction; and (3) the structural path relationships among four variables: spiritual belief, integration of spirituality at work, self actualization and job satisfaction. The study surveyed 215 hospice IDT members who completed the Jarel Spiritual Well-Being Scale, the Chamiec-Case Spirituality Integration and Job Satisfaction Scales. Multiple regression and structural path modeling methods were applied to explain the path relationships involving all four variables. The IDT members surveyed were: nurses, 46.4%; home health aids, 24.9%; social workers, 17.4%; chaplains, 4.2%; physicians, 2.3%; and other, 4.8%. Ninety-eight percent of the respondents viewed themselves as having spiritual well-being. On a 0-100 scale, IDT staff reported high spiritual belief (mean = 89.4) and they were self-actualizing (mean = 82.6). Most reported high job satisfaction (mean = 79.3) and spiritual integration (mean = 67.9). In multiple regression, spirituality, integration and self-actualization explained 22% of the variation in job satisfaction (R = 0.48; adjusted R(2) = 0.218; df = 3,175; F = 17.2; p = 0.001). Structural path models revealed that job satisfaction is more likely to be realized by a model that transforms one's spirituality into processes of integrating spirituality at work and self actualization (chi(2) = 0.614; df = 1; p = 0.433) than a model that establishes a direct path from spirituality to job satisfaction (chi(2) = 1.65; df = 1; p = 0.199). Hospice IDT member's integration of their spirituality at work and greater self actualization significantly improve job satisfaction.