Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ Blog - A Look Back At 5 Years Of Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™
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On May 1, 2017, ANA Enterprise launched a bold, new program — The Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ Grand Challenge, now simply known as Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation (HNHN). The goal of HNHN is to transform the health of our nation by first improving the health of its 4 million RNs. In the first 5 years, we’ve accomplished much more than we ever thought possible.The Beginning: Years 1-2
More than 25,000 individuals and 350 partner organizations joined our movement in its first year. Our partners and organizational affiliates blew engagement and participation out of the water. As one example, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) won the HNHN Partners All In (PAI) Award prize of $5,000 for recruiting the highest number of participants in a specified period. They used the prize money to create a walking route with exercise stations to allow nurses to increase their physical activity during the workday.
Although HNHN was designed primarily for nurses, anyone can participate. When it first launched, HNHN established its social media presence on the following channels:
- Twitter: @HealthyNurseUSA
- Instagram: HealthyNurseUSA
- Facebook: Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation
- Pinterest: HealthyNurseUSA
Year 2 of HNHN saw continued growth. ANA Enterprise won the 2018 American Society of Association Executives™ (ASAE) “Power of A” Silver Award for HNHN. This award recognized the organizational work being done to advance the health of the nursing profession.
In 2019, ANA Enterprise partnered with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to launch the HNHN Student Ambassador program. The program is designed to:
- Increase nursing student and school of nursing participation in HNHN
- Improve nursing student health and safety
- Prioritize nursing student wellness
“Partnering with ANA Enterprise on the HNHN program has helped us sustain the health and well-being of the nation’s nursing student population during these extraordinary times,” said Deborah Trautman, AACN’s president and CEO. “By connecting students with available resources, AACN and ANA are working to ensure that nursing students are able to thrive as they complete their education and prepare to enter the health care workforce.”
That same year, Mayo Clinic Arizona (MCA) created an original music video of MCA’s HNHN program.
Possibilities Unlimited: Years 3-4
During this timeframe, nurses were facing financial concerns, COVID-19, racial inequities, and an increasing public mental health crisis. All of this took a high toll on nurses’ health. With so many issues to address, ANA Enterprise first placed their attention on the impact that financial well-being has on health.
On January 23, 2020, ANA’s Board of Directors approved adding “financial health” to ANA’s healthy nurse definition. The beginning of the definition now reads, “A healthy nurse actively focuses on creating and maintaining a balance and synergy of physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, financial, personal, and professional well-being.”
In early 2020, HNHN launched the Nurse Suicide Prevention Committee. Later renamed the Strength through Resiliency Committee, the group took a pivot when COVID-19 struck. They created a comprehensive blog, Mental Health Help for Nurses, designed to:
- Assist nurses in crisis
- Help build resiliency
- Give nurses needed mental health resources
The Strength through Resiliency Committee continued to create products and resources on nurse suicide prevention, including:
- Webinars
- Blogs
- Presentations
- A series about nurse suicide in American Nurse Journal
- A comprehensive nurse suicide prevention/resilience website
In April 2020, HNHN began a partnership with the meditation app Headspace to provide all HNHN participants with a free 1-year subscription to Headspace PLUS. It’s been a popular offering for HNHN participants, with the greatest engagement in meditation and sleep.
Overall, HNHN had 183,000+ participants and 550+ partners by the end of 2020.
In This Together: Year 5
One of our first initiatives of 2021 was to create an advisory committee. Members of the committee contribute to the strategic goals of HNHN by reviewing and recommending HNHN activities, programs, and resources to facilitate and support nurse well-being and grow HNHN participation. The group is made of:
- Exemplar C/SNAs
- Organizational affiliates
- Health care facilities
- Schools of nursing
- Other top subject-matter experts
We also welcomed new staff to the team, including our director, Katie Boston-Leary, and an experienced researcher, Alison Cuccia. An updated mission statement now notes that HNHN is “improving the nation’s health — one nurse at a time,” and our new tagline urges all nurses to “Inspire. Empower. Move.”
HNHN added a new domain in 2021. Mental Health joined our other five domains, including: Nutrition, Physical Activity, Rest, Quality of Life, and Safety.
We are just getting started. With over 300,000 participants and more than 580 partner organizations, HNHN is here for the long-haul. Our funders, including the American Nurses Foundation, Humana, Compass One Healthcare, CeraVe, Prudential, Moxie, Novo Nordisk, and Capella all help make it possible. And despite the challenges of a pandemic, racial inequalities, staffing shortages, and mental health crises, we will continue to be a resource to nurses who want to prioritize their well-being.
Want to join Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation? Sign up today. You also can text healthynurse to 52-886 to receive our monthly challenge tips via text.
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Quality of Life
04/28/2022 1:58pm CDT
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