Other Titles
Rapid Presentation Round
Abstract
With escalating nursing faculty shortages, faculty retention is important. Developing an infrastructure to support work-life balance and create programs that address wellness is needed to enhance nursing faculty satisfaction by improving well-being and career satisfaction. Following the Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation initiative launched in 2017 to improve the health of nurses within the United States, educational settings must promote and maintain healthy work environments on a more personal level. Within a midwestern College of Nursing, faculty and instructional academic staff satisfaction surveys are deployed every three years. Overall job satisfaction has plummeted from 90% satisfaction in 2016 to 28% satisfaction in 2022. One survey question states “There is a sense of community within the Department of Nursing” with approximately 50% strongly, or somewhat strongly, disagreeing. Bringing wellness programs to work settings provides a bridge to health. One innovative initiative to address faculty wellbeing, community, and assist with retention, is the development of a nursing wellness activity incorporating free Yoga sessions funded by a private donor. The weekly activity is led by a registered nurse who is also a certified yoga instructor. The instructor uses yoga poses, breathing work, and meditation to maintain the body, mind, and spirit while promoting health and healing. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published “Yoga for Health: What the science says” in February 2020. Though limited research is available that supports how yoga improves well-being, there is some literature that indicates yoga may contribute to stress management, balance, positive mental health, health habits and more. An additional intervention for promoting wellness within the College of Nursing is the ability to have complimentary healing touch sessions with a nursing faculty member who practices and teaches healing touch. Healing sessions are provided in the healing room on campus for students, staff and faculty. Since interventions that promote wellness are anticipated to increase job satisfaction and faculty retention, the university also provides campus-wide employee health through wellness programs. With the next deployment of the faculty and instructional academic staff satisfaction survey, it is hypothesized that in 2025 there will be an improvement in overall job satisfaction.
Notes
References: Boamah, S., Kalu, M., Havaei, F. McMillan, K., & Belita, E> (2023). Predictors of nursing faculty job and career satisfaction, turnover intentions, and professional outlook: A national urvey. Healthcare, 11 (14) 2099. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11142099
Wilson, V., Donsante, J., Pai, P., Franklin, A., Bowden, A., & Almeida, S. (2021). Building workforce wellbeing capability: The findings of a wellness selfcare programme, Journal of Nursing Management, 29 (6),1742–1751. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13280
Yoga for Health and Well-Being (2020). https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/yoga-for-health-science
Sigma Membership
Delta Phi
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
N/A
Research Approach
N/A
Keywords:
Workforce, Stress and Coping, Yoga
Recommended Citation
Airth-Kindree, Norah M.M. and Lu, Der-Fa, "Addressing Health and Healing in the Work Environment Through a Wellness Yoga Class" (2025). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 122.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2025/presentations_2025/122
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Addressing Health and Healing in the Work Environment Through a Wellness Yoga Class
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
With escalating nursing faculty shortages, faculty retention is important. Developing an infrastructure to support work-life balance and create programs that address wellness is needed to enhance nursing faculty satisfaction by improving well-being and career satisfaction. Following the Healthy Nurse Healthy Nation initiative launched in 2017 to improve the health of nurses within the United States, educational settings must promote and maintain healthy work environments on a more personal level. Within a midwestern College of Nursing, faculty and instructional academic staff satisfaction surveys are deployed every three years. Overall job satisfaction has plummeted from 90% satisfaction in 2016 to 28% satisfaction in 2022. One survey question states “There is a sense of community within the Department of Nursing” with approximately 50% strongly, or somewhat strongly, disagreeing. Bringing wellness programs to work settings provides a bridge to health. One innovative initiative to address faculty wellbeing, community, and assist with retention, is the development of a nursing wellness activity incorporating free Yoga sessions funded by a private donor. The weekly activity is led by a registered nurse who is also a certified yoga instructor. The instructor uses yoga poses, breathing work, and meditation to maintain the body, mind, and spirit while promoting health and healing. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, published “Yoga for Health: What the science says” in February 2020. Though limited research is available that supports how yoga improves well-being, there is some literature that indicates yoga may contribute to stress management, balance, positive mental health, health habits and more. An additional intervention for promoting wellness within the College of Nursing is the ability to have complimentary healing touch sessions with a nursing faculty member who practices and teaches healing touch. Healing sessions are provided in the healing room on campus for students, staff and faculty. Since interventions that promote wellness are anticipated to increase job satisfaction and faculty retention, the university also provides campus-wide employee health through wellness programs. With the next deployment of the faculty and instructional academic staff satisfaction survey, it is hypothesized that in 2025 there will be an improvement in overall job satisfaction.
Description
Participants will gain insights into the importance of well-being programs within the work setting as an intervention to enhance faculty retention and promote job satisfaction. The method for understanding faculty job satisfaction at a midwestern university college of nursing will be shared along with the yoga class intervention that was developed to enhance health, build community, and hypothetically impact faculty retention positively.