Wendy Edgar

MINDBODYSTRONG for Nursing Faculty and Graduate Student Wellness: A Program Evaluation

Abstract Background: Depression, burnout, and suicide among healthcare workers are serious issues affecting healthcare safety and quality. Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased stress and psychosocial issues, compounding the problem of wellness of healthcare workers.

Local Problem: There is no workplace wellness program within the College of Nursing. The leadership has prioritized wellness for faculty, staff, and students. Implementing a wellness program is expected to improve the physical and mental well-being of faculty, staff, and students.

Methods: The seven-week manualized MINDBODYSTRONG Program was presented to faculty members and graduate students within the College of Nursing. Modifications to the program for COVID-19 included offering all sessions online via Zoom and weekly make-up sessions. Process measures included attendance at online sessions, program attrition, feedback from participants not completing the program, and feedback from program facilitators.

Intervention: The MINDBODYSTRONG Program was delivered to 101 participants in the College of Nursing over seven weeks online via Zoom between March and May 2022.

Results: 68 participants (67.3%) completed all seven sessions. Feedback from individuals not completing the programs highlighted competing priorities, timing in the semester, and lack of time as reasons for attrition. Facilitators felt supported in their role and found the materials provided by the coordinator helpful.

Conclusion: The MINDBODYSTRONG program is one tool that has been shown to decrease negative mental health outcomes among faculty and graduate nursing students in prior work. While we were unable to assess these outcomes, our evaluation provided valuable information regarding the delivery of the program on such a large scale. Additional work is needed to study the efficacy and address challenges of using an online delivery method.

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