AREUFIT Health Services, Inc employs full time Health Educators to provide our wellness initiatives

What is a Health Educator?

Health Educators have their degrees in Health Education, Public Health or Health Promotion.  Health Promotion is “the science and art of helping people change their lifestyle toward a state of optimum health…Lifestyle change can be facilitated by a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and create environments that support good health practices”

O’Donnell, M. P. “Definition of Health Promotion: Part III: Expanding the Definition.”
American Journal of Health Promotion, 1989, 3, 5.

Our overall goal is to empower and motivate individuals and communities to voluntarily change and improve health behaviors.  We also assist individuals and companies to overcome barriers to lifestyle change. AREUFIT’s Health Educators are CHES certified; a voluntary credential that ensures a mastery of fundamental skills in the health education profession.

Fact:

Health Educators became an official occupation according to the United States Department of Labor in 2007.  Click to see the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) article.

Why Health Educators are BEST equipped for wellness initiatives

Wellness beyond the buzzword    

Health Educators are educated and trained in the practice and theories of health behavior change, health promotion practices and disease prevention, while other professions are not.  We are certified under the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) that certifies Public Health professionals to be Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES).  Continuing education seminars and conferences are required, therefore keeping our Health Educators on par with the continuously changing Public Health profession.  A Health Educator’s CHES certification responsibilities and more information can be found on www.nchec.org

The Health Educator Difference

According to Wellness Councils of America, there are usually two “camps” of health and wellness vendors, the first being Health Care/registered nurses, and the second being Health Educators.  While nurses and health care providers are qualified and can conduct these screenings from a healthcare perspective, using Health Educators are the “highly-preferred” method.
Excerpt borrowed from: Hunnicutt, D. (2008). You Can’t Change What You Can’t Measure. WELCOA’s Absolute Advantage Magazine, 7(2), 30-37:

“In most circumstances, you will find that vendors fall into two basic “camps.” The first is the healthcare and/or RN (registered nurse) camp… This is a very important qualification and should be taken seriously. But-and here’s the newsflash- it’s not the only qualification that should be considered when choosing a partner and this leads us to the second camp of vendors.

Currently, there is an entirely new group of health screening partners that have recently emerged and-in keeping with the spirit of practicing radical honesty- contracting with them is highly-preferable to just working with a healthcare provider. Specifically, in this second camp, you’ll find not only professionals who are qualified to conduct blood draws and assessments of body composition (just to mention a few), but you’ll find a group of health educators who can assist you in a variety of other ways.

In addition, they’ll not only conduct your biometric tests like blood draws etc., but they’ll also provide an individualized coaching opportunity for each participant-which is critical to the behavior change process. In an ideal world, we recommend that you identify and select a partner that falls into the second camp of health screening companies.”