1017 Occupational health nurses working as worksite health promotion agents

Abstract

IntroductionTraditional role in occupational nursing had been for many years to assist occupational physicians and provide primary health care services. Worksite health promotion field requires a different role for occupational nurses. Our team was trained in health coaching and started offering a new service for workers. Workers can have their personal coach for lifestyle risk management. In this poster we selected two experiences to communicate the impact of this kind of recourse for worksite health promotion programs.MethodsIn an Company a 1000 employees from the oil and gas industry with 98% of workers screened for lifestyle risks annually, we define as target of the intervention 2 major risks: Hypertension and weight issues. Two wellness programs were offered: Blood pressure initiative and Wise. Occupational Nurses were the health promotion agents in charge of the program implementation. We measure each risk at the beginning and we measure impart of the intervention. Core intervention were health coaching interactions.ResultWise program 219 enrolled employees, 182 participating, Initial measures: overweight: 36.3%, obese type 1: 33.0%, obese type 2: 16.5%, obese type 3: 4.9%, healthy weight: 9.3%. Final measures: overweight: 37.9%, obese type 1: 34.6%, obese type 2: 12.6%, obese type 3: 4.9%, healthy weight: 9.9%.: 71%. Total weight loss: 484.90 kg. Blood pressure program: 935 enrolled and screened employees, 184 employees didn´t knew they had hypertension measurements and of them 98 were diagnosed. Healthy habits modification: 71%.ConclusionHealth coaching is a powerful intervention for healthy habits modification in order to reduce lifestyle related risks. Occupational nurses are a strategic group of health professionals for worksite health promotion programs. All this aspects may contribute to develop new roles for occupational health nurses to contribute to build a healthy culture in the workplace.