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An evaluation of health promotion workshops for nurses

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the effectiveness of the two-hour and the one-day Health Promotion Workshops offered to nurses in British Columbia as part of a four month pilot project. The Registered Nurses' Association of British Columbia (RNABC) employed a nurse as special project director to develop and present Health Promotion Workshops to nurses. The goals of the workshop were: 1. To sensitize nurses to their own needs to optimize their own health. 2. To sensitize nurses to their role of sensitizing other to their need to optimize their own health. 3. To motivate nurses to make changes in their personal health behaviours. 4. To motivate nurses to make changes in their role as health promoters. The workshops were offered to all RNABC chapters throughout the province. Seventeen chapters chose the two-hour workshop and 5 chose the one-day workshop. Eight of the two-hour and three of the one-day workshop groups were used for the evaluation. The workshops were evaluated by observation, discussion with some participants, and with responses obtained through questionnaires. The questionnaires were designed to obtain information regarding knowledge, awareness, perceptions of the workshop, and behaviours of the nurses related to physical activity. Control groups were chosen by randomly selecting from the RNABC chapters, nurses who had not attended the workshop. Using analysis of variance, the control groups were found to be equivalent to the workshop groups prior to each session when comparing the questionnaire responses. Multivariate analysis of variance was done to determine differences between the workshop groups and their appropriate control groups six weeks following the workshops. The results indicated that: 1. There was a significant increase in reported exercise behaviours for both the two-hour and one-hour workshop groups. 2. There were no significant differences in reported habits relating to physical activity. 3. There were no significant differences in reported behaviours as a health promoter. Analysis of variance was done to determine significant differences among means for the knowledge test scores of each group. The results indicated that both workshop groups had a significantly higher mean score when compared to their control groups. Seventy-five percent of the participants reported that they identified changes they would like to make in their own fitness and forty-five percent indicated they were able to accomplish changes in this area. Seventy percent indicated they had an increased awareness of their role as health promoters in their work. It was concluded that the Health Promotion Workshops were effective in 1) sensitizing nurses to their own needs to optimize their own health, 2) motivating nurses to make changes in their health behaviours, and 3) sensitizing nurses to their role as health promoters.

Text

2010-02-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20237

Nursing

University of British Columbia

Graduate