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Guidelines and laws prohibit smoking in public places, and evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of workplace wellness programs in promoting healthy environments. A long-term care (LTC) facility selected as the focus for this project does not offer wellness programs and does not restrict on-site smoking by employees. The purpose of this project was to construct an evidence-based smoking cessation education program for delivery to employees at the LTC facility. The practice-focused question addressed whether a workplace wellness smoking cessation education program would increase employees' knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking and promote engagement in smoking cessation strategies. A pretest and posttest to assess knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking was designed to be administered to employees prior to and after the education program. A panel of 6 experts consisting of 4 clinical nurse specialists, a nurse educator, and a nurse researcher was selected to assess the potential effectiveness of the education program. A 10-question survey was used to obtain the panel experts' evaluation of the program. Descriptive statistics were then used to analyze the results. Nearly all of the experts surveyed reported that they would recommend the education program to a friend or colleague, with 66% selecting "very likely" This is indicative of the potential for the program to be effective. Findings might support social change at the selected facility by increasing staff knowledge of the harmful effects of smoking and staff commitment to participating in a smoking cessation program.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for approximately 600,000 deaths in the United States each year, with African Americans (AAs) disproportionately affected. Individual-level approaches to reducing CVD remain ineffective, mobilizing a movement that advocates for population-based solutions. Workplace wellness programs (WWPs) have gained considerable traction as a viable strategy for ameliorating CVD burden among workers in general. However, no studies have looked at the efficacy of WWPs in ameliorating CVD specifically among AA employees--a knowledge gap that this investigation aimed to close. Based on the health belief model and the social cognitive theory, this retrospective cohort study used de-identified secondary data to evaluate the racial differences in the mean change in CVD biomarkers between 163 AAs and 228 Caucasians civilian workers participating in a U.S. Marine Corp self-directed WWP. The 4 CVD biomarkers evaluated were systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and waist-to-hip ratio. Repeated measures MANCOVA analysis was used to establish the contribution of the independent variable (race) to SBP, DBP, LDL cholesterol, and waist-to-hip ratio. Results showed an overall significant main effect of time for changes in SBP and DBP even after controlling for race, sex, age, and days from baseline. However, there was no overall main effect of time for changes in LDL cholesterol or waist-to-hip ratio. Further research using randomization, a comprehensive health risk appraisal, and a larger sample size may yield additional benefits to AAs. Implications for positive social change include reduction of the extraordinarily high CVD disease burden and disparity among AAs.