Practicing healthy lifestyles.

a i d h t H i o O ur employees are our greatest asset!” is a slogan you often see emblazoned in hallways, boardrooms, and lunchrooms throughout comanies in America. But what does that truly ean to the individual employee? Emloyees in the United States work longer ours and have less vacation time than heir European counterparts, while surassing them in productivity. In fact, toay, half of all American adults are happy ith their jobs, down from 60% in 1995. From the employer’s perspective, the uestion to be asked is what a healthy emloyee is worth, says Wendy Lynch, PhD, xecutive director of The Health as Huan Capital Foundation. Until recently, esearchers would answer this question in erms of savings in medical costs. Howver, she argues, reduction in medical osts are merely a secondary outcome. ealthy employees have improved funcion at work, lower absentee rates, and ower rates of on the job injury. What is eing missed in the old thought process is he notion of human capital—the many abilties and resources the employee brings to he organization, including skills, abilities, xperience, and attitude. In our hospitals, the service-oriented ature and emotional demands of the ork makes it particularly important that e take care of these workers. Take nurses, or example, the largest workforce in our ospitals. Researchers at the University of alifornia, Los Angeles, analyzed data rom the Nurses’ Health Study, a historic tudy on women’s health launched at righam and Women’s Hospital in the id-1970s. Surveys are completed every wo years by over 200,000 female regisered nurses about their health, including moking habits. According to the most reent data, the smoking rate among regisered nurses nationwide is nearly 12%, hich although lower than the national verage, is of concern in that nurses who moke may be less apt to support tobacco ontrol programs or encourage their paients to quit. Also, despite seeing smoke