How Do Integrative Health Practices Impact Healthcare Workers in Community Health Centers? : An Experiential Workshop View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Ruthann Russo  

The pandemic has resulted in significant healthcare worker shortages and severe stress response for many staff who continued in their roles. Through a series of participatory action research interviews, students and faculty at Kean University identified first a need for, and then an interest in, training in evidence-based integrative health practices at government-sponsored community health centers. We conducted training for healthcare staff in practices such as guided imagery, acupressure, yoga and qigong with positive outcomes in the areas of resilience, self-efficacy, and mindfulness. In this workshop we share the results of our research by demonstrating the process with attendees. First, we share the pre- and post-training validated assessments and then we train attendees in four of the integrative health practices used in our research. Attendees leave with resources to reproduce both the training sessions and the research process if they so choose.