October - NRASP Membership Luncheon - Why Wellness? Incorporating wellness into your safety and occupational health program

On the Menu:  Chicken Marsala

Description:  Workplace wellness initiatives go hand in hand with safety. Workplace hazards, such as physical demands, chemical exposures, and work organization, often interact with non-work factors such as family demands and health behaviors to increase health and safety risks. The one thing these two parallel programs have in common is their focus on prevention. This is one reason why they fit so well together. Bringing these two areas of health in the workplace will provide a more comprehensive risk reduction plan that will include reducing the “work” and “life” risks. Together these two parallel programs create a workplace based on trust. Current occupational/safety measures show employees that you care about their “work risks” and integrating a “life risks” program in with this can dispel skepticism for your efforts in improving personal health behaviors. If employers provide a healthy environment, both safe and conducive to healthy personal choices, for an employee to spend their time you can make their time outside of work happier and healthier…..Which in turn creates a better employee when they are coming to work……which in turn creates increased productivity and safety.      

About Teresa:  Teresa Johnson is a BSN prepared Registered Nurse Supervisor with Sanford Health Plan’s Partners in Prevention team in Fargo. Teresa previously worked as the Wellu Coordinator at Case New Holland and Health Fairs Supervisor with Sanford Health’s Occupational Medicine in Fargo. In July Teresa and her team merged with the Partners in Prevention team in Sioux Falls to create a more comprehensive Worksite Wellness program that focuses on improving health behaviors in the workplace Teresa and her team provide worksite wellness biometric screenings, education and wellness challenges and believes wellness initiatives go hand in hand with safety. Workplace hazards, such as physical demands, chemical exposures, and work organization, often interact with non-work factors such as family demands and health behaviors to increase health and safety risks. Teresa and her team help employers bring wellness and safety together by focusing on the one thing these two parallel programs have in common which is prevention. Teresa believes bringing these two areas of health in the workplace will provide a more comprehensive risk reduction plan that will include reducing the “work” and “life” risks. Teresa and her team help employers to provide a healthy environment, both safe and conducive to healthy personal choices, which helps an employee to spend their time outside of work happier and healthier…..Which in turn creates a better employee when they are coming to work……which in turn creates increased productivity and safety.