| | Keeping Fit - Get Movin' Program Helps
Impact
Staying active, especially in one’s senior years, increases the chance of a person remaining independent. A new exercise program, Get Movin’, offered by Gundersen Lutheran Heart Institute allows people to achieve higher activity levels with a personalized program implemented by exercise physiologists.
Aims
1. All participants will meet their personal goals.
2. All participants will continue exercising after completion of the program.
Changes
Not applicable, program just began in 2005.
Results
Conclusions
1. The average score for people who participated in the Get Movin’ Program meeting their personal exercise goals was sixty-eight.
2. Seventy three percent of patients are still exercising after completing the program. One person was not able to exercise due to recent surgery.
3. Most of the participants in the Get Movin’ Program would recommend it to others.
4. The average score for people experiencing increased strength and endurance following participation in the Get Movin’ Program was eighty-five which is very good for a first time assessment.
Next Steps
1. Implement a system that establishes weekly goals to help patients achieve their overall goal(s)
2. To assist participants to meet endurance and strength goals, implement an asterisk* (visual prompt) on the documentation sheets at the weeks when weights should be added to the training.
3. Discussions at staff meetings every three months to ensure people are understanding and implementing the new processes.
4. Re-survey patients at the end of 2007.
Activity Leader
Isaiah Foster, MA - idfoster@gundluth.org
Background
The Moving and Improving Program is a medically supervised, safe and effective exercise program designed for people who have medical concerns such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease or just a sedentary lifestyle. This program has a waiting list for participation, so the Get Movin’ program was created. It is a 6 week exercise program which strives to help people know how it should feel to use exercise equipment, be comfortable with the machines used in exercise programs, and facilitate transition to a community based fitness program if desired. Participants are mainly self referred or referred by their health care provider.
Methods
The exercise physiologists, contacted all 2005 program participants, N = 42, during the fall of 2006 to complete a telephone survey about the Get Movin’ Program. Participants were contacted three times and if unavailable, they were considered lost to follow-up, N=33. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of responses for each question and when appropriate a weighted score (assigning a numeric value between 0 and 100 based on the number of categories and determining the average to approximate a binomial or yes / no response) was calculated.
Acknowledgements
Amanda Hajoglou, MS – Exercise Physiology
Michele Dunlap, MS – Exercise Physiology
Teresa Lee, MS – Exercise Physiology
Cheryl Strom, BSN – Quality Improvement |