Date of Award

Spring 2022

Document Type

Project – Manuscript

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Committee Chair

Anna Hamrick

Abstract

Objectives: To implement and evaluate the effectiveness of using a mobile app to encourage hospital workers to increase their physical activity.

Methods: Project was open and advertised to all hospital employees in a small rural community hospital in the south-eastern United States through flyers, bulletin boards, emails, banners and in-person registration assistance. Registered participants completed a 30-day walking challenge and recorded their daily step counts. Participants received a gift bag with fitness items such as water bottles. The three highest step count participants were awarded prizes. Weekly prize drawings were conducted for participants with 10,000 steps per day. Post challenge participants were asked to answer an “End Challenge Survey.” Outcome data was collected from (N=57) participants.

Results: Project implementation which began on the first Monday after the New Year holiday, was successful as participants did increase their physical activity. Many participants expressed enjoyment with the friendly competition and noted it inspired them to be more active, even during work shifts. Participants noted feeling improved health and well-being, with some participants recording improved blood pressure scores. Participants shared they would continue to use and encourage others to use the mobile app to boost physical activity. Yet, participants did not report significant improvements in sleep quality or levels of stress.

Conclusions: While many healthcare employees are often challenged by limited time and lack of energy to participate in physical exercise due to work requirements, fun competitive comradery fitness applications are rising as a solution to encourage physical activities. As a result, more individuals may change their perceptions towards physical activity by using this in business and organizations

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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