Educate, motivate, move: Outcomes of a nurse health coach program for diverse populations in a community wellness center

The “Educate, Motivate, Move” health coaching program was developed from a needs assessment and educational intervention with a diverse group of adults participating in a fitness program housed in a community based school wellness center. Adults from the community partnered with physical education students from a local university to design an exercise program to meet their individual needs. Many participants are referred to the wellness center from primary care providers in a nearby community health center. Graduate and undergraduate nursing students support the program with health coaching and monitoring of adults participating in wellness center activities. The graduate nursing students designed “Educate, Motivate, Move” as a program to assist adult participants in the wellness center where they established realistic individual health goals, measured their progress in reaching these goals over time, and provided guided questions for participants to reflect on their overall health. A series of health education modules were presented on hypertension, nutrition, and risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The graduate students interacted with the community members on a weekly basis to gain awareness of their health needs and actively designed programming that would encourage positive health behaviors. Quantitative and qualitative data from the coaching program will be presented. The graduate students served as mentors to undergraduate students enrolled in the community health nursing practicum course. Undergraduate students became more comfortable with the concept of health coaching and actively interacted with the adult participants in the program.