Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ - #healthynurse Spotlight Series - Chanel Griffin, RN, BSN 4155

Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ - #healthynurse Spotlight Series - Chanel Griffin, RN, BSN

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Nurse motivated by HNHN creates her own step challenge at her workplace. Chanel Griffin, RN, BSN, is a nurse at Atrium Health Anson in Wadesboro, NC.

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To walk 5 miles a day, you’ve got to walk about 10,000 steps. That’s the baseline many fitness trackers recommend you target per day. And it’s fantastic to strive for a certain number of daily steps. But it’s just as good to simply increase your current step count. Even a small improvement can benefit your health.

That’s what #healthynurse Chanel Griffin wanted to prove to herself and to all the employees at her workplace, Atrium Health Anson.

While pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), Chanel had to complete a project that provided a clear link to patient outcomes. Chanel already participated in many of ANA’s Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ challenges. She knew those challenges provided undeniable health benefits.

“I thought creating my own step challenge would be a great concept to use for my DNP project,” says Chanel. “The administration at Atrium Health Anson was receptive to my idea and helped me launch it across the hospital.”

Active Anson

The administration helped Chanel send an email to employees inviting them to participate in the challenge, which Chanel named Active Anson. They also made the challenge accessible to employees through the hospital’s intranet. The project rolled out at the beginning of 2022, just in time for New Year’s resolutions. 
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Chanel was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Out of Atrium Health Anson’s 150 employees, 57 signed up for Active Anson. That’s nearly 40 percent of the organization.

The main components of the challenge were:
  • Committing: The competition lasted 30 days.
  • Keeping track: Participants could use a paper printout to track their steps or a mobile app with a fitness device, like a smartphone or smartwatch
  • Logging steps: Participants logged and submitted steps to Chanel, who kept track of everyone’s progress. Every week, the highest stepper won a prize.

As the creator of the challenge, Chanel focused on inspiring and motivating participants. She created a bulletin board with participants’ names. Each time someone hit 10,000 steps in a day, they earned a star. Each star equaled one ticket to win a prize. On Monday of every week, the person with the most stars won a cash prize.

In addition to motivation through prizes, the bulletin board gave participants a competitive spark. Employees could see who was getting the most stars, prompting them to work harder to increase their own steps.

Health Benefits for Many
Chanel’s step challenge was a massive success. It helped Chanel complete her DNP project requirement and encouraged dozens of people to get healthier.

“I learned a lot from this experience, and I love that I helped my coworkers get a little healthier,” says Chanel. “People know what they can do to increase their physical activity. They saw a big improvement in their health, and they felt better.”

The winner of the challenge, a security officer, averaged about 20,000 steps per day. She signed up for the challenge because her blood glucose was high. The 30 days of increased walking improved her blood glucose and even helped her lose weight.

There was one more significant benefit of the project: During such a trying time for health care workers, Chanel’s step challenge was exactly the outlet they needed.

“It helped a lot of people take their minds off everything that was happening in the world,” says Chanel.

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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight 04/13/2022 8:51pm CDT

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1 Comments
ChristiM ChristiM Apr '22

Comraderrie and competition always help encourage me to work/workout a little harder. I find having health challenges at work to be so beneficial, especially because it seems like that's where you spend most of your time. So to have your own heath on your mind, helps to keep you on track.

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#healthynurse Spotlight
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The #healthynurse Spotlight is a shout out to nurses who are making changes in their lives to improve their health and wellness. You can too! Read their stories for inspiration here.

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