Maxine Holt

Student perceptions of a healthy university.

UNLABELLED As complex environments within which individuals and populations operate, universities present important contexts for understanding and addressing health issues. The healthy university is an example of the settings approach, which adopts a whole system perspective, aiming to make places within which people, learn, live, work and play supportive to health and well-being. The UK Healthy Universities Network has formulated an online toolkit, which includes a Self-Review Tool, intended to enable universities to assess what actions they need to take to develop as a healthy university. This paper presents findings from consultative research undertaken with students from universities in England, Scotland and Wales, which explored what they believe, represents a healthy university. METHODS Student surveys and focus groups were used to collect data across eleven universities in England, Scotland and Wales. A priori themes were used to develop our own model for a healthy university, and for the thematic coding phase of analysis. FINDINGS A healthy university would promote student health and well-being in every aspect of its business from its facilities and environment through to its curriculum. Access to reasonably priced healthy food and exercise facilities were key features of a healthy university for students in this study. The Self-Review Tool has provided a crucial start for universities undertaking the journey towards becoming a healthy university. In looking to the future both universities and the UK Healthy Universities Network will now need to look at what students want from their whole university experience, and consider how the Self-Review Tool can help universities embrace a more explicit conceptual framework. CONCLUSION The concept of a healthy university that can tailor its facilities and supportive environments to the needs of its students will go some way to developing students who are active global citizens and who are more likely to value and prioritise health and well-being, in the short and long term through to their adult lives.

Health and well-being in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). What public health support do SMEs really need?

Aims: Health and well-being in the workplace is a concept that is understood as a fundamental business case for a productive, happy and healthy workforce. The workplace is also a setting by which knowledge and skills about health can be disseminated to assist people, in improving their health and well-being. Public health professionals are in a position to develop workplace health and well-being interventions, which support those in jobs and those seeking employment. They can also influence the extent to which work and the workplace affects health and well-being outcomes. This article aims to identify the main health and well-being needs of a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Greater Manchester and the support that public health professionals can offer. Methods: The research adopted a Health Needs Assessment (HNA) approach using convenience and opportunistic sampling methods, from the list of SMEs in Greater Manchester. The SMEs varied in size and type of business, and 91 telephone interviews, using semi-structured questions, were used to collect data which identified the health and well-being needs of a sample of SMEs in Greater Manchester. This research resulted in qualitative data using thematic analysis. Results: Two key themes emerged from the study. Acute seasonal sickness was the most pressing reason for employee absence from work (viruses, flu, seasonal disorders) for the SMEs in this research. This accumulated to the theme of sickness presenteeism. This research highlighted that employees will present at work with acute illness that requires rest, is easily transmitted to other employees and most likely will take a longer time to recover from as cross infection and re-infection occur. A subsidiary theme was that of authenticity and the reporting of sickness, contributing further to sickness presenteeism as employees seek to legitimise their illness. Conclusion: This article provides issues which are specific to SMEs in Greater Manchester. In particular, the pressing problem of sickness absence and sickness presenteeism is related to seasonal illness and the effects these have on SMEs in Greater Manchester. Public health preventative services such as the provision of flu vaccines may be one way of supporting SMEs with acute seasonal episodes of illness.

The educational preparation of student nurses as communicators of health and wellbeing.

of the theories of health and sickness suggests that the most important job of a nurse is to ensure that the patient is placed in the correct milieu to ensure optimal health. The ability to actualize this requires the development of a sound knowledge base, skills in observation and communication to assess, inform and educate patients and their families. Many nurses have the skills that enable them to incorporate health promotion principles into their existing work, and without doubt this is the suggestion within current government and nursing policy. Yet a plethora of studies suggest a dichotomy between health promotion theory and nursing practice and that communicating health messages is not necessarily something that is actualized in nursing practice. Given the arguments suggested above – which current research within our own BSc Nursing programme would concur with – we have begun to consider how better to prepare our undergraduate nurses as future promoters of health and wellbeing. The undergraduate pre-registration nursing curriculum is a significant instrument for developing and assessing nursing skills to enable effective communication of health messages. In particular, modules of study that focus on the promotion of health and wellbeing offer an opportunity for student nurses to consider theoretical frameworks and practise such skills. Current research within our own BSc Nursing programme is considering how areas of the curriculum can encourage the student nurse to analyze the gap between theory and practice in communicating health messages to patients and others with two areas offered as a brief discussion in this paper.

Healthy Universities: a guiding framework for universities to examine the distinctive health needs of its own student population

Aims: The underlying principle of settings for health is that investments in health are made within social systems in which health is not necessarily the main remit. In order to understand the health needs of its own community, a growing movement of Healthy Universities is interested in applying the approach within the higher education sector. This study examined the student health behaviours of one university so that future initiatives can be tailored to its own student population. Method: Quantitative data were gathered from 3,683 students studying at a UK urban university. A 60-question online student questionnaire focusing on seven key topic areas was used to gather data and simple descriptive statistics are used to present key findings. Results: The study has identified a need for considering alternative ways of engaging students with appropriate health services throughout the academic year. A focus for university initiatives around healthy eating options, how to cook healthy food and the importance of keeping hydrated is highlighted as a common need. Risky behaviour involving alcohol, drug and substance use and sexual activity suggests a strong argument for not separating university sexual health and alcohol interventions. Conclusion: Underpinned by the Healthy Universities settings concept, this study examined the health and wellbeing behaviours of one university’s own student population. It highlights behaviours within the university that are similar to national averages, and some that are not. This understanding can inform the planning of future health promoting university initiatives to meet the distinctive needs of its own students.

Public health and nursing practice: Seizing the receptive moment

Both nursing and government policy indicate the crucial role that all nurses have in the public health arena and yet it would seem that the role of the nurse in general within public health is open to debate and criticism. The author has a responsibility for the development of public health across the undergraduate curriculum within a university. This paper presents a discussion of some of the issues raised from student nurses, nurse lecturers and nurse managers. These discussions are as a result of both a 5 year PhD study undertaken by the author and a revalidation the undergraduate nursing programme within the authors organisation. The aim of the paper being to consider what is needed to put public health at the core of all and every nurses practice across the UK. It takes the approach of lessons learned as it discusses some of the changes made to the authors own organisations undergraduate nurse curriculum, and those changes which still need to happen in order for nursing to identify its public health capacity. Such changes it may be suggested are easily transferable across all UK nursing curricula.

The UK Healthy Universities Self Review Tool: Whole System Impact

Abstract Over recent years, there has been growing interest in Healthy Universities, evidenced by an increased number of national networks and the participation of 375 participants from over 30 countries in the 2015 International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges, which also saw the launch of the Okanagan Charter. This paper reports on research exploring the use and impact of the UK Healthy Universities Network’s self review tool, specifically examining whether this has supported universities to understand and embed a whole system approach. The research study comprised two stages, the first using an online questionnaire and the second using focus groups. The findings revealed a wide range of perspectives under five overarching themes: motivations; process; outcomes/benefits; challenges/suggested improvements; and future use. In summary, the self review tool was extremely valuable and, when engaged with fully, offered significant benefits to universities seeking to improve the health and wellbeing of their communities. These benefits were felt by institutions at different stages in the journey and spanned outcome and process dimensions: not only did the tool offer an engaging and user-friendly means of undertaking internal benchmarking, generating an easy-to-understand report summarizing strengths and weaknesses; it also proved useful in building understanding of the whole system Healthy Universities approach and served as a catalyst to effective cross-university and cross-sectoral partnership working. Additionally, areas for potential enhancement were identified, offering opportunities to increase the tool’s utility further whilst engaging actively in the development of a global movement for Healthy Universities.