04 Mar Five Ways to Promote Wellness Within Your Pediatric Practice

Wellness means different things to different people, but many would agree that it plays a big role in your overall health. Finding ways to boost wellness, especially at the office, can improve work performance as well. According to the CDC, healthier employees translates to a more productive office. Additionally, offices that encourage wellness among employees not only reduces absenteeism, but may even help employees and their families improve overall health, and there are many, easy ways to promote wellness in your practice.

Hold walking meetings

Some hospitals and medical practices regularly hold Walk with a Doc’ programs for patients and those within their community. However, the number of businesses and practices that hold walking meetings among employees is growing as more employees are engaging. It’s hard not to engage during a walking meeting and an exploratory study by Harvard Business Review suggests that in addition to boosting cognitive engagement, walking meetings also help get the creative juices flowing to enhance productivity as well. 

Host healthy lunch and learns

Healthy lunch and learn sessions may not be a novel idea, but they’re still a popular option that businesses continue to use. Topics range from smoking cessation to weight loss, stress management and more. The sky’s the limit on what topics you could discuss. For the best ideas for your practice, you may need to do a little digging to see which concerns and challenges that interest your employees most. Some topics may need a follow-up session or two. So, keep that in mind when planning your events and offer complimentary materials or resources to help employees make and follow through on more informed decisions.

Make it fun with monthly challenges

Speaking of informed decisions and boosting health, why not kick it up a notch and host monthly challenges? Although not everyone has a competitive spirit, a challenge need not be a competition, but, rather, a way to encourage healthier choices from increasing your daily step count to spending less time in front of a screen during the week or even kicking a caffeine or sugar habit. The possibilities are virtually limitless. If you’re uncertain of where to begin, look around the web for some inspiration. You’ll find gobs of healthy challenges to get you started and where you go from there is up to you.

Encourage healthy snacks and treats in the breakroom

A healthy pediatric practice can be a tough nut to crack if you don’t address one of the most common healthy office challenges — the goodies in the breakroom. You know what I’m talking about, the doughnuts from the local bakery, the cupcakes or brownies someone brought in to celebrate something, and all the cookies, candies, and chips that cram the vending machine….waiting longingly for your attention. Rather than giving in to these, why not dish up an alternative? Instead of the usual fare, offer healthier alternatives.

I’m not suggesting something that tastes like cardboard. Make it fun. Make it tasteful. Make it a challenge. Pinterest, along with many online recipe databases, offers a broad range of cooking and baking inspiration to excite the taste buds.

Don’t want to cook or bake? No problem. Offer up a fruit or veggie tray, or something similar. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be hard. There are so many options available, that it’s much easier than you think.

Encourage self-care with stress relief toys

Wellness wouldn’t be wellness if it didn’t include the whole body and that includes self-care. It’s impossible to know what’s going on in everyone’s lives and not every day at the office runs as smoothly as you’d like either. Some days are downright stressful and stress can impact the body in many ways including headaches, digestive problems, weight gain, cardiovascular concerns and more, according to the American Heart Association. So, it’s important to stay on top of it and take and improve your health.

There are several ways to reduce stress like getting more rest at night. However, in the office, simple things like breathing exercises, proper nutrition, meditation or stress relief toys can offer some temporary support. Of course, if the problem runs deeper, then professional help and a supportive network might be a better option.

Promoting wellness in your pediatric practice is easy. However, before you begin, do some digging to find out what is going to work best for your practice and what your employees are most interested in. Once you have a plan, spread the word and get started.

Engage those employees

The best way to engage employees is to create a community of wellness. You can do this by creating a committee to assist with wellness initiatives and accountability. Start small, maybe you choose to begin with healthy snacks and stress relief toys in the breakroom. 

Interested in learning other ways to engage employees in your practice? Check out this ebook, 9 Simple Ways to Increase Staff Productivity.