Abstract
Introduction
The Sleep More, Stress Less Program (SMSL) is a University of Alabama (UA) employee wellness program designed to help participants implement health behavior changes to improve ...sleep quality and stress management. Workplace wellness programs offer a win-win for the employee and employer through improved health and reduced absenteeism. However, many programs fail to show effectiveness on health and workplace metrics, even with an increase in targeted health behaviors. This may be due—at least in part—to employee self-selection and data collection limitations. The SMSL program addresses these challenges by recruiting employees experiencing sleep and stress issues and using a rigorous assessment approach that records data on behavior changes, process goals, intermediate mechanisms, and health outcomes. We present findings from the SMSL program evaluation conducted Fall 2020.
Methods
The SMSL program is delivered online with both synchronous and asynchronous content (videos and exercises). The content combines evidence-based interventions for sleep and stress with the science of behavioral motivation. All adult (19–99 years) UA employees were eligible and recruitment occurred through the WellBama website and employee emails. Employees are encouraged to select programs that match their health issues. Participants complete an online pre-program assessment and track their sleep and stress for one week. Next, participants complete the SMSL educational program over the next three weeks. In the fifth week, participants track their sleep and stress and complete the online post-program assessment.
Results
60 of the initial 85 participants completed all assessments (70.5%). Participants were primarily Female (79%) and Caucasian (77%) or Black (15%), and aged 24–68 (m=44) years. Moderate improvements were reported in total sleep time, sleep maintenance, and time to return to sleep after awakening. Similar improvements were observed in stress scores. Qualitative evaluation of participant behavior goals revealed a focus on sleep scheduling, stimulus reduction, and relaxation.
Conclusion
Employee wellness program evaluation is often affected by selection and measurement bias. The SMSL program targeted individuals experiencing stress and/or sleep problems and measured multiple outcomes to identify benefits over the 5-week program. Other wellness programs would benefit from this approach in order to capture true program outcomes.
Support (if any)
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•Examined occupational health issues in hospitality.•Identified key elements of barriers to successful employee wellness programs.•Suggested improvements for wellness initiatives in hospitality ...workplaces.
This study conducted a comprehensive review of work conditions and health risks/problems for various hospitality workers and summarized the various health and wellness promotion programs available in the workplace with the aim of identifying the key elements of successful employee wellness programs. In this review, physical health problems, such as musculoskeletal disorders, lung diseases, and dermatologic diseases, as well as mental health problems that are common among hospitality employees were discussed. In addition, different types of wellness programs that may help employees to overcome these health problems were included. In the next stage, interviews with hotel staff holding multiple positions were conducted to identify the most significant health challenges and assess their preference for various types of wellness initiatives. Using MAXQDA Pro, health-related categories and themes were extracted from the interviews. Participants believed that the lack of time, physical challenges and stress are the top three wellness challenges in the hospitality industry. In order to tackle the challenges, they stated that hospitality businesses should provide various wellness initiatives including healthy eating and weight management, smoking cessation, stress management, exercise programs, and fitbits or other wellness tracker devices.
A 78-year-old man with dementia experienced waxing and waning of symptoms with changes in altitude as he traveled from his home in the Rocky Mountains to lower elevations and back. To replicate the ...improvement in his symptoms with travel to lower elevations (higher pressure), the patient was treated with a near-identical repressurization in a hyperbaric chamber using compressed air. With four 1-h treatments at 1.3 Atmospheres Absolute (ATA) and concurrent administration of low-dose oral glutathione amino acid precursors, he recovered speech and showed improvement in activities of daily living. Regional broadcast media had documented his novel recovery. Nosocomial COVID-19 and withdrawal of hyperbaric air therapy led to patient demise 7 months after initiation of treatment. It is theorized that hyperbaric air therapy stimulated mitochondrial biochemical and physical changes, which led to clinical improvement.
We investigated the effectiveness of a 5‐week wellness group curriculum for counselors‐in‐training (N = 60). A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to evaluate whether ...the curriculum positively affected perceived wellness among participants. The results showed statistically significant differences in scores, indicating a higher level of wellness after the intervention.
The intersection of hospitality cultures and healthcare industries has gained widespread recognition. As commercialized postpartum care has gained traction in Eastern countries and the growing ...acknowledgment of unmet needs of “the Fourth Trimester” in Western countries, the postpartum wellness hotels (PWHs), as a healthcare hospitality business, deserve special consideration. Despite its significance, this niche market remains underexplored, and there is a dearth of research dedicated to the motivation scale in this domain. This study addresses this gap by utilizing comprehensive procedures to develop and validate a PWH motivation scale. The results indicate six primary motivational factors: rest and relief, parenting learning and newborn development, self-reward and indulgence, perceived norms, environment, as well as body and beauty. Furthermore, the impact of motivation on engagement is discussed.
•Investigate the motivation scale of postpartum mothers for staying in a postpartum wellness hotel (PWH) after discharge.•Rest and learning emerge as their primary motivations.•The luxurious 30-day postpartum wellness hotel experience serves as a self-reward and resource replenishment for new mothers.•The perspective of holistic wellness is introduced.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Burnout is a negative workplace syndrome of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and perceived professional inefficacy that risks the patient-provider relationship, patient care, and ...physician well-being.
OBJECTIVE
To assimilate the neurosurgical burnout literature in order to classify burnout among domestic and international neurosurgeons and trainees, identify contributory factors, and appraise the impact of wellness programs.
METHODS
A scoping review identified the available literature, which was reviewed for key factors related to burnout among neurosurgeons. Two researchers queried PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and Web of Science for articles on burnout in neurosurgery and reduced 1610 results to 32 articles.
RESULTS
A total of 32 studies examined burnout in neurosurgery. A total of 26 studies examined prevalence and 8 studies detailed impact of wellness programs. All were published after 2011. Burnout prevalence was measured mostly through the Maslach Burnout Inventory (n = 21). In 4 studies, participants defined their own understanding of “burnout.” Domestically, burnout prevalence was 11.2% to 67% among residents and 15% to 57% among attendings. Among trainees, poor operative experience, poor faculty relationships, and social stressors were burnout risks but not age, sex, or marital status. Among attendings, the literature identified financial or legal concerns, lack of intellectual stimulation, and poor work-life balance as risks. The impact of wellness programs on trainees is unclear but group exercises may offer the most benefit.
CONCLUSION
Noticeable methodological differences in studies on trainee and attending burnout contribute to a wide range of neurosurgery burnout estimates and yield significant knowledge gaps. Environment may have greater impact on trainee burnout than demographics. Wellness programs should emphasize solidarity.
This study explored employee health behavior changes and health care utilization after workplace genetic testing (wGT). Wellness-program-associated wGT seeks to improve employee health, but the ...related health implications are unknown.
Employees of a large US health care system offering wGT (cancer, heart disease, and pharmacogenomics PGx) were sent electronic surveys. Self-reported data from those who received test results were analyzed. Descriptive statistics characterized responses, whereas logistic regression analyses explored correlates of responses to wGT.
53.9% (n = 418/776) of respondents (88.3% female, mean age = 44 years) reported receiving wGT results. 12.0% (n = 48/399) received results indicating increased risk (IR) of cancer, 9.5% (n = 38/398) had IR of heart disease, and 31.4% (n = 125/398) received informative PGx results. IR results for cancer and/or heart disease (n = 67) were associated with health behavior changes (adjusted odds ratio: 3.23; 95% CI 1.75, 6.13; P < .001) and health care utilization (adjusted odds ratio: 8.60; 95% CI 4.43, 17.5; P < .001). Informative PGx results (n = 125) were associated with medication changes (PGx-informative: 15.2%; PGx-uninformative: 4.8%; P = .002).
This study explored employee responses to wGT, contributing to the understanding of the ethical and social implications of wGT. Receiving IR results from wGT may promote health behavior changes and health care utilization in employees.
Law enforcement officers experience high rates of stress associated with their work, potentially leading to alcohol use as a means of coping. Using data from a nationally representative survey of law ...enforcement officers in the U.S., we found that adjusted odds of binge drinking monthly or more frequently increased significantly with higher levels of administrative stress and each additional type of critical incident reported. Increased officer resilience had a significant association with decreased adjusted odds of binge drinking monthly or more frequently. Strategies for reducing stressors and building resiliency are important for reducing binge drinking and improving wellness among officers.
