"Healthy Living"

The importance of keeping your employees as healthy as possible is very apparent to you all.  

Illness not only disrupts the work flow, interrupts family life and can cause much stress to the employee but it also causes increase in business costs from missed deadlines, substitute employees wages and health care costs.  

Some of the ways to keep your employees healthy:

1.  Immunizations: Keeping up to date
*  Keeping an accurate record of your employees vaccination records and making sure they had their childhood immunizations.
*  Influenza vaccinations yearly for all those medically able
*  Pneumonia vaccinations every 5-8 years for those eligible
*  Hepatitis B vaccination (series of 3)
*  Tetanus every 10 years and consider Tdap (with pertussis) once in adult lifetime
*  HPV vaccination for those under 26 years old, female and male
*  Hepatits A - if traveling
*  Meningococcal vaccine - if in communal settings such as Military or College Dorms
*  Zoster vaccines >60 years old

2.  Health Screenings
*  Pap smears yearly if high risk, or childbearing age with abnormal pap in 3 years
*  Mammograms yearly starting at age 40 years old, earlier if symptomatic or strong family history of early breast cancer
*  Colonoscopies starting at age 50 years old, 40 if strong family history, earlier if symptoms
*  Physicals - yearly or bi yearly including labs
*  PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen blood test) yearly starting at age 50 years old
*  Glaucoma screening, especially for those with family history or those with diabetes
*  Bone Density every 2 years for those at risk for osteoporosis (menopausal women, those on steroids, those with previous fractures, 

3.  Smoking and Tobacco-Use Cessation
*  Quitting smoking ......... reasons why - lungs improve in 24 hours, 48 hours, etc........

4.  Stress reduction

5.  Syndrome X
Encompasses Three of the following diseases:  
*  Blood Pressure over  
*  Fasting Blood Sugar
*  Triglycerides 
*  Waist Circumference 

6.  Obesity

As board certified Nurse Practitioners, Sharon and Sandy have practiced Primary Care in Sussex County for over 10 years. Both are members of the NJ State Nurse's Association and ANA. In January 2009, they opened New Perspectives Health Care in downtown Sparta, New Jersey.

Sharon St.Angelo