Diverse school staff participating in wellness activities, symbolizing health and community support.

Fit for Success: How School Nurses Champion Employee Wellness

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Kai Mendoza in Health & Wellness October 2026 • 5 min read.

"Discover how school nurses are leading the charge in developing effective employee wellness programs, boosting staff health, and ultimately improving student outcomes."


School nurses hold a unique position within the educational system. They are not only responsible for the health and well-being of students, but also have the opportunity to positively influence the health of school employees. Recognizing this potential, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) provides comprehensive support and evidence-based guidelines to empower school nurses in their multifaceted roles.

NASN's Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice™ serves as a roadmap for creating healthy and safe school environments. This framework prioritizes student health and academic success and aligns with the whole school, whole community, whole child model, fostering collaboration between learning and health initiatives. These models emphasize a student-centered approach that includes family, the school community, and school employees.

Inspired by the Johnson and Johnson School Health Leadership Program, a team of school nurses from Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) in Virginia, embarked on a mission to create sustainable change in their community. Their goal was to develop a comprehensive plan for the school division that would positively impact employee wellness and ultimately improve student achievement and educational outcomes. This article will delve into the ACPS Employee Wellness Program, known as "Finding Fit," and explore the strategies and tools employed in its development.

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School Nurses’ Influence

School nurses are uniquely positioned to monitor and influence the health of both students and school employees. The CDC notes that when staff model healthy behaviors, they can reinforce those behaviors with students. Together, these sources highlight a potential connection between employee wellness and the health habits students observe.

Building and Evaluating Wellness Programs

The CDC’s July 17, 2024 guide recommends developing, carrying out, and evaluating healthy eating and physical activity programs for all school employees. A workplace also offers opportunities to promote health and emotional well-being and prevent disease and injury. Strong4Life notes that absent or poorly functioning employees can undermine quality learning and increase healthcare costs, while staff role-modeling may help encourage healthy lifestyles among students.

Finding Fit: Building a Healthier School Community

Diverse school staff participating in wellness activities, symbolizing health and community support.

"Finding Fit" is Alexandria City Public Schools' Employee Wellness Program, designed to provide resources and encourage employees to embrace a healthy and active lifestyle. The program is managed at the school division level, ensuring consistent support across all schools.

Each school within ACPS has a designated Wellness Champion – a staff member who helps disseminate health information and promote participation in the wellness program. Since the inception of "Finding Fit," an informative website was created and is maintained by a school nurse, serving as a central hub for program information (ACPS, 2018). The Wellness Program webpage highlights several key components:

  • Employee Assistance Program: Offers immediate, no-cost counseling assistance for emotional or work-life concerns, financial information, and legal support resources.
  • This Month's Focus on Your Health: Provides monthly updates on educational information, online seminars, and informative podcasts related to health and wellness.
  • Get Active in Alexandria: Features fun and active things to do in and around the community, including fitness classes, school-hosted activities, and events at the City of Alexandria's Community Recreation Centers.
  • Health Insurance Carrier Wellness Partnership: The school division's health insurance partners, Kaiser and United Healthcare, provide online health, fitness, and wellness programs and resources.
  • Annual Spring Health Challenge: A competition between all schools and the division office to encourage staff to engage in successful health and wellness practices.
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Research on School Employee Health

A community-based participatory physical activity promotion project was considered after school nurses and a superintendent raised concerns about the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among school employees. The project included a work-site wellness program and follow-up intended to determine the intervention’s effectiveness. A separate study notes that unhealthy behaviors and stress can affect students as well, with potential consequences for academic achievement and school costs.

Limits of the Available Evidence

In an urban elementary/middle school wellness program study, qualitative interviews addressed use of the fitness facility, participation in group fitness classes, and perceived dietary changes, but researchers did not objectively measure anthropometrics, physical activity, or dietary intake. In the South African PaCT pilot study of cardiovascular disease risk among teachers in Cape Town, 53.2% of principals permitted school participation, and 489 of 1,779 teachers agreed to participate. These details describe limits in measurement and participation; they do not, by themselves, establish that the programs failed.

A Multi-Level Approach

The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) provides support and evidence-based best-practice guidelines for school nursing, and school nurses are described as uniquely positioned to influence employee and student health. A Child Trends framework depicts wellness-enhancing processes across three contexts: the school system, the individual school, and the employee. Its toolkit is intended to help school systems advance wellness from different starting points, based on community values and priorities, past experience, and current capacity.

Studies show that school-based staff health promotion programs have the potential to positively affect the health of the estimated 7.2 million staff working in U.S. elementary and secondary schools and save funds that could be more useful in other areas (Society for Public Health Education, 2013). These health promotion programs have been linked to reduced staff absenteeism, improved morale, increased physical activity, weight loss, improved blood pressure, and higher levels of general well-being. Faculty and staff health promotion programs, as part of a coordinated school health program, indirectly influence the health of students attending school daily (Society for Public Health Education, 2013).

The Ripple Effect: Healthier Staff, Healthier Students

The School Health Policies and Practices Study 2012 (Society for Public Health Education, 2013) emphasizes the recommendation of coordinated school health as a strategy for improving student health and learning. School nurses are in a unique position to influence staff and student health. Health organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have found that employee wellness is related to positive health outcomes (ASCD & CDC, 2015).

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System-Level Planning and Support

A May 16, 2026 article suggests that expanding school nurses’ involvement in strategic planning, policy development, and staff wellness initiatives could strengthen whole-school health promotion and produce broader institutional benefits. The SOPHE School Employee Wellness toolkit was developed with guidance from a 14-member School Employee Wellness Advisory Committee. Its development also included formative research conducted by Wayne State University consultants with school employees and stakeholders from across the country.

Workplace Experience and Implementation

HealthSource Solutions worked with district leadership to plan and implement infrastructure for wellness changes that could be measured over time. A qualitative case study of school nurses set out to explore their workplace, workplace factors, and how those factors affect their psychological well-being. These examples focus on implementation and employees’ experiences rather than providing quantified outcomes in the supplied descriptions.

These health outcomes in staff may contribute to a greater commitment to personal health and improved positive role modeling for students. Research shows that healthy staff who model healthy behaviors may lead to healthier students with improved academic outcomes (Gray et al., 2017). In fact, ACPS found the evidence presented by school nurses, including the whole school, whole community, whole child (WSCC) model, so compelling that a goal for staff wellness was added to the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan (ACPS, 2015).

School nurses collaborating with division leadership, human resources, division insurers, and community partners have propelled Finding Fit Wellness Program off to a good start. School nurses can use their influence, working within the Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice™™, to help develop employee wellness programs and make policy changes to align with the WSCC model (National Association of School Nurses, 2015).

Participation and health-cost changes in context

  • 3.9%Among wellness-program participants, average medical claims payments increased 3.9% from the pre-program to post-program period.[1]Caveat: The source did not know specifically what drove the lower increases among participants.
  • 85%Surveys of educators in South Africa reported overweight and obesity rates as high as 85% in public schools in low socioeconomic areas and other areas.[2]
  • 31% of sample overweightIn a separate sample, about 31% of school employees were overweight.[3]
  • 40% of sample obeseAbout 40% of that sample were obese.[3]
  • approximately 75%In an onsite fitness-facility evaluation, approximately 75% of the diverse teacher and staff population provided outcomes data, though the sample was relatively small because of the school’s size.[4]

What the findings suggest-and what they cannot establish

The claims comparison shows a smaller increase among program participants than among nonparticipants, but it does not establish that the program caused the difference. The source could not identify what drove the gap, and it noted that selection bias might exist, even if likely small.[1]

Across varied interventions and workplaces, findings were mixed; the more encouraging pattern was for programs combining multiple components. That pattern points to promise, not a uniform result across settings.[5]

How wellness programs compare across settings

Across different programs and workplace settings, the reported evidence was mixed, although multicomponent approaches appeared more promising for employee health behaviors and outcomes.[5]

In an onsite-facility program, teachers said using the facility relieved work-related stress, and the facility reduced some barriers to physical activity.[4]

What further evidence would need to show

  • Would outcomes from a larger evaluation clarify whether the onsite-facility findings hold beyond a single school with a relatively small sample?[4]

Terms used in employee wellness research

Comprehensive school employee wellness approach
A coordinated set of programs, policies, benefits, and environmental supports addressing multiple risk factors and health conditions.[6]
WSCC model
A model with 10 components, including employee wellness, health services, family engagement, and community involvement.[7]

Sources

  1. Medical cost analysis of a school district worksite wellness program (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  2. Feasibility Testing of the Health4LIFE Weight Loss Intervention for Primary School Educators Living with Overweight/Obesity Employed at Public Schools in Low-Income Settings in Cape Town and South Afr (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  3. Are school employees role models of healthful eating? Dietary intake results from the ACTION worksite wellness trial. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  4. An Onsite Fitness Facility and Integrative Wellness Program Positively Impacted Health-Related Outcomes Among Teachers and Staff at an Urban Elementary/Middle School (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  5. Supporting School Staff: Insights From Employee Health and Well-Being Programs (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
  6. Components of WSCC | Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) | CDC (www.cdc.gov)
  7. Results from the School Health Policies and Practices Study 2016Search (stacks.cdc.gov)

About this Article -

Written with AI assistance from published research, and reviewed by the Mystum team. See our About page for more information.

Everything You Need To Know

1

What is the 'Finding Fit' program and why is it significant?

The 'Finding Fit' program, implemented by Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), is an employee wellness program designed to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among school staff. Its importance lies in its potential to improve staff health, which indirectly benefits students. The program's existence aligns with the understanding that the well-being of school staff correlates with positive outcomes for students. Its main components, like 'Employee Assistance Program' and 'Annual Spring Health Challenge', aim to create a supportive environment that extends to both staff and students.

2

What is a 'Wellness Champion' and why is this role important?

The 'Wellness Champion' is a staff member assigned to each school within Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) to facilitate health information and program participation. This role is crucial because it ensures consistent dissemination of health-related information and promotes staff engagement. The 'Wellness Champion' acts as a vital link between the division-level program ('Finding Fit') and individual schools, helping to create a culture of wellness throughout the school community.

3

What does the 'Employee Assistance Program' offer and why is it important?

The 'Employee Assistance Program' (EAP) provides immediate counseling, financial, and legal support to Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) employees. This is important because it addresses the various stressors that employees face, offering support and resources. By providing no-cost assistance for emotional, work-related, financial, or legal concerns, the EAP helps to improve employee well-being and reduce stress, contributing to a healthier school environment.

4

What is the role of the 'National Association of School Nurses' (NASN) and its 'Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice'?

The 'National Association of School Nurses' (NASN) provides support and guidelines to school nurses. The 'NASN's Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice' is a key resource because it offers a roadmap for promoting healthy school environments that support student health and academic success. The framework emphasizes collaboration between learning and health initiatives, highlighting the importance of a holistic approach to student well-being and the role of school nurses in achieving these goals.

5

What is the 'Annual Spring Health Challenge' and why does it matter?

The 'Annual Spring Health Challenge' is a competition among schools and the division office within Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), encouraging staff to engage in wellness practices. Its significance is the promotion of active participation in health initiatives that leads to an overall improvement in staff health and well-being. By fostering friendly competition, the challenge motivates staff to adopt healthier habits, reinforcing the program's goals and ultimately contributing to improved student outcomes.

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