An Integrative Health Educational Intervention for RNs Working at Night: A Pilot Study

Supporting nurses' well-being has become a top priority for nurse leaders, organizations, and nurses themselves. It's important that RNs have effective ways to access and use various integrative health programs and resources that are available to them. But this can be especially difficult for nurses who work at night, who often cannot easily participate in health and wellness activities provided during the day.

To assess whether a 13-week electronic, asynchronous integrative health educational intervention, tailored to the unique needs of clinical RNs working at night, was useful, applicable, and accessible to them.

This cross-sectional observational pilot study was conducted in a sample of clinical nurses who work at night at four hospitals within an academic health system. The study was guided by the Quadruple Aim framework, which considers clinician wellness to be a prerequisite to safe patient care. The study intervention was an educational curriculum consisting of 13 modules delivering instructive integrative health content. Weekly modules were focused on topics in the categories of healthful eating, purposeful movement, sleep hygiene, and stress reduction. Topic information was sent to participants via an electronic data capture system every Monday at midnight for 13 consecutive weeks. Participants completed pre- and postintervention surveys, as well as short weekly surveys assessing their engagement and interest in that week's content.

The initial sample consisted of 108 participants who completed the preintervention survey. Of these, 76 completed the pre- and postintervention surveys, and 58 completed the entire program, including all 13 modules. Descriptive statistics, a proxy metric for engagement (time per page view), and results from an optional usability survey were analyzed. Stress management content had the highest engagement and was ranked the highest priority of the four topic categories. Sleep hygiene content was ranked the second highest priority. Statistically significant differences were found for participants' pre- and postintervention use of stress management and sleep hygiene resources.

Providing electronic and asynchronous means to access integrative health programs and resources programs can be an effective way to engage the cohort of RNs who work at night. In developing or expanding such programs and resources, it's paramount to consider their usefulness, applicability, and accessibility to the intended audience.