In 5 Signs You Really Need A Health Coach, I discussed how coaches help people explore solutions that will fit their needs, and allows people to explore their needs without judgement. In Episode 41, Building The Best Hospitals To Work For, I went into some details on the importance of workplace health promotion programs. In today’s episode, we’ve jumping off into the direct benefits of coaching for staff wellbeing. Stay tuned as I dive deeper into the benefits of coaching for staff and your organization.
Episode 63 – The Benefits of Mindset Coaching For Nurse Wellbeing
Providing coaching in the workplace supports nurse wellbeing and brings many benefits to the hospital. In 5 Signs You Really Need A Health Coach, I discussed how coaches help people explore solutions that will fit their needs, and allows people to explore their needs without judgement.
According to the literature, there are a number of factors that influence organizational health:
1. the ability of staff to be able to balance job demands, social relationships as well as social change ([1,2];
2. organizational offerings need to be tailored to staff needs [2]
3. organizational health must be reflective of the organization’s climate.
In this podcast episode, I’ll focus on the ways coaching supports all three of the above-mentioned influences, leading them to creating healthy staff, leaders and world-class health organizations. Satori feels that coaching creates a more balanced and healthy hospital workforce. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, “43% of US employees think their employers should also be concerned with their health” (Ref). So if you want to listen to this 43% of US employees, then stay tuned as I make the case for you to consider how coaching will benefit you staff wellbeing and organizational health.
First let’s talk about Coaching…
What Is A Coach?
A coach, is a mentor or guide. They help to guide us through a variety of techniques that motivate us to find better solutions in our life. This might be in sports, finance, leadership, life, and in health. You might see a coach when you have some warning signs with a particular area in your life. You may also need to make changes immediately, to prevent your health condition from getting worst. It’s often difficult to see a new perspective when you see life through the same people all the time. A coach has training to bring-out a different perspective. They are trained to help you shift your attitudes, habits, and beliefs to see what you’re truly capable of achieving.
Does Coaching Work? A Harvard health study found Health and Lifestyle coaching to be effective for people managing many lifestyle issues, and improved multiple biomarker risk factors. For this reason, clinics are offering coaching to their patients, some insurance companies are covering reimbursement, and private organizations are including coaching to their staff to reduce healthcare costs. Before we discuss the benefits of coaching for wellness and organizational health, let’s look at the trends in organizational health.
The Trends In Organizational Health
The 2020 Trends Report on Well-Being at Work concluded that work is taking its toll on people and their health. For many years, nurses have reported workplace-related burnout. In most cases, nurses work-related stress has had a detrimental impact on their quality of life. According to one study, there was conclusive evidence that work-related stress “can also overshadow the performance of care and reduce such behaviours in nurses, which may be one of the factors affecting the outcome of patients”. All this stress contradicts the definition of being “healthy”.
With increased documentation on the detrimental aspects of employment, such as stress and burnout, the trend is to show more concern for employees’ health and well-being. We see a shift in employee preferences across the last few years: “What employees really want isn’t more money but better benefits. They want to work at a place that is really organizationally healthy” [4, 5]. This suggests that individuals’ health and well-being is subject to their experiences of the workplace, as well as work-related aspects [5]. Thus why it has become widely apparent to organizations that they need to develop their individual workforce in a new way, and place greater interest in employee health and well-being as a means to improve employee commitment and retention rates.
As I said earlier, there are 3 main factors that influence organizational health: 1. the ability of staff to be able to balance job demands, social relationships as well as social change ([1,2]; 2. organizational offerings need to be tailored to staff needs [2] and 3. organizational health must be reflective of the organization’s climate. Let us now dive-in to the power of coaching as a catalyst to influencing organizational health.
Benefit 1. How Coaching Helps Staff Balance Job Demands & Social Change
As I discussed in episode 59, maintaining a positive work-life balance is one of the keys to preventing burnout and living a wholesome and meaningful life. According to a multi-pronged evidence-based approach, one key predictor to preventing burnout involves making health care providers aware that burnout is highly prevalent. This alone can lead to less stigma around mental health issues which can lead to fewer health problems, more awareness and better resilience. Social factors over the last 4-5 years have increased the awareness around burnout and its effects on frontline staff across many industries. In order for staff to be able to balance job demands, social relationships and adapt to the social changes, they need more preventative measures to manage this “burnout” (reference).
Employers play a key role in helping staff shift their point of focus. One of the big issues that nurses face is first, not having enough time to unwind between shifts, and secondly, not taking the time to unwind. These can certainly have its consequences, both on a personal level and for the health of the organization overall. Even though people want to be healthy and balanced, it’s normal to bump-up against our environmental cues, preventing us from executing our plan. Nurses and health practitioners work shifts that pose demands on motivation and mindset. People, in general, bump-up again certain behaviour patterns, or social patterns, that interfere with their wellbeing and they don’t want to take the time to unwind. But if provided the opportunity to engage in health-enhancing programs, through organizational offerings like Satori’s The ProMind Experience, the organizational climate begins to shift – where everyone is more reflective, including leadership and management teams.
Benefit 2. How Coaching Can Be Tailored To Staff Needs
Coaching and leadership development is not new to nursing leaders, but unfortunately , it’s not accessible to frontline staff. The National Academy of Medicine recently published “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030. Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity”. It outlined that nurse well-being and resilience is of great importance in ensuring the delivery of high quality care and improving community health. Health staff could thrive if provided a concrete coaching system to improve health habits and reduce stress levels.
All too often, we see health care practitioners lacking in a system because they’re busy. The mindset is to “just get through this next rotation”. The mindset around work is that it’s all-consuming, and they’ll breath again a few days after their shifts are over. That type of work schedule is very taxing on the body, and the mind. Not everyone can attend one-on-one counselling or coaching sessions because of time constraints. Satori’s The ProMind Experience is a great offering that takes into consideration these time constraints. It’s a program designed by a nurse for nurses, and allied health practitioners.
Staff Needs & The Mind-Body Connection
When it comes to human health and wellbeing, quite often we focus on the physical symptoms, diagnosis and treatment; all the tangible facts. There’s a tendency to overlook the connections between our mental state and our physical state. The subconscious mind, has been shown to play a role in affecting our mood, interactions, and physical health.The subconscious mind is the part of our brain that stores our memories, beliefs, habits, traumas, and automatic reactions. These are the same beliefs and habits we take to work with us each day. They affect our mind-body connection, our immune system, our hormones, and most of all our general emotional wellbeing. We tackle some of that in The ProMind Experience.
If you have a belief (conscious or subconscious) that you are the type of person that can’t sleep during the day “no matter what”, you will come to expect a poor night’s sleep after a night shift. That poor sleep habit will stick with you, because you actually believe that is the type of person you are. If you believe that you’re the type of person that loses fat easily, you will naturally gravitate to healthy weight management habits and these behaviours will stay with you for a lifetime. Positive beliefs and a more hopeful mindset can promote a general sense of improved wellbeing.
Time Commitments of Staff & A Tailored Approach
The time commitment and cost of coaching vary. Some people access coaching for a discrete problem or issue, whereas others may participate in coaching for months or years, for some longer term issues (weight management, diabetes, depression, or managing teen years of parenthood). The cost varies depending upon the skill and experience of the coach as well.
Satori’s The ProMind Experience, provides great flexibility, as coaching is performed in a multitude of ways. We offer a virtual e-learning framework, combined with group coaching sessions via videoconferencing. Because health practitioners face time-constraints, we’ve taken these factors into account. Our students work through The ProMind Experience together as a group, with a start and end date. They receive coaching over 7 weeks in a 6 module framework. The lessons are short, no longer than 15 minutes long, and the modules are only released weekly. We only solve one problem at a time by not letting them access all the lessons at once either. This facilitates a more integrated approach to personal growth.
Benefit 3. Coaching Boosts Organizational Climate & Builds World-Class Healthy Organizations
Did you know that 80% of employees who work at companies with robust health and wellness programs feel engaged and cared for by their employers?
Research shows that healthy employees have better quality of life and are more likely to deliver better clinical care. Healthy behaviours lower health risks that lead to chronic health conditions. Coaching is also shown to be effective across many areas of health. By taking and organizational approach, you shift the organizational climate for the better while engaging your frontline in health and performance-boosting activities. This not only builds resilience, but helps organizations create strong connections between employees and the healthcare institution, and also shows appreciation for them (Cacace et al 2016).
Coaching helps staff define and refine personal and professional goals, and offers off-site, and confidential support. Healthy organizations place greater emphasis on building a healthy organizational climate, shifting leadership practices. With the employee as a main priority in the organization, wellness program are a common employee benefit. When you have healthy employees, they have greater performance. This is what makes workplace health promotion a staple in many organizations. In addition to enhanced performance, workplace health programs help keep their employees happy and productive. Many workplaces have health & wellness committees, created by the employees themselves (See Episode 41 – Building The Best Hospitals To Work For).
Corporate Responsibility
When employers support employees at preventing chronic disease they are creating an asset in the company. According to the World Health Organization:“The workplace, along with the school, hospital, city, island, and marketplace, has been established as one of the priority settings for health promotion into the 21st century.” According to the CDC, “an investment in employee health may lower health care costs and insurance claims. In fact, employees with more risk factors, including being overweight, smoking and having diabetes, cost more to insure. And that additional cost will be handed-off to the employers, as opposed to people with fewer risk factors.1, 2“
In order to achieve health equity for all, and improve healthcare initiatives and leadership, it’s important to offer programs that support and guide nurses in engaging with personal reflection. The ProMind Experience is a system that helps you design a personal feedback system that educates, motivates, and accelerates your breakthroughs. The digital coaching program helps you to become a healthier and more balanced health leader.
Coaching With The ProMind Experience
Work-life balance and nursing wellbeing go together. By arming your employees with the right tools and strategies, you can facilitate the development of personal wellbeing and sustainable healthy habits.
Satori’s The ProMind Experience enables hospitals to help frontline nurses achieve work-life balance in 7 weeks or less.
- The bonus training, Banish Burnout Bootcamp, offers tips and strategies to help with stress management
- Our Team Approach helps staff to navigate their own personalized health journey through fitness and nutrition
- Opportunities to build social connections with coworkers through the mindful clinician community
- Seamlessly gamified platform offers a fun experience that hits the dopamine button
- A fun and engaging closed community-based group to boost collaboration and enhance wellbeing
- And so much more….Sound like a good fit?Request a Discovery Call with me to see for yourself how The ProMind Experience(TM) can help improve work-life balance at your hospital and organization at this page here.
Articles on Mindfulness
1. Baking and Cooking as Mindfulness Activities
2. The Benefits of Everyday Mindfulness
3. Your Own Happy Pill Through Mindfulness Coaching
4. How Meditation Helps for Stress-Management
5. Episode 33. 5 Interesting Facts On Meditation
6. 4 Easy Steps To Build A Meditation Practice
7. Create Your Own Meditation Space – Episode 15 Satori Radio Podcast
8. Mindfulness In The Workplace – Episode 58
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