myHR Archives
myHR: January 13, 2021
Get Active for Heart Health
The heart is the engine that drives the body, so when you care for your heart your whole body will shine. Regular exercise and eating more veggies and fruit are important parts of building a healthy heart. But strengthening your mental and emotional well-being will also keep your heart happy.
According to the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7, there are seven risk factors that you can improve through lifestyle changes to help you achieve ideal cardiovascular health.
- Manage Blood Pressure
- Control Cholesterol
- Reduce Blood Sugar
- Get Active
- Eat Better
- Lose Weight
- Stop Smoking
The Penn Healthy You team will promote one of the following strategies each month. For January, our kick-off month, we provide tips and resources for living an active life.
Get Active
According to the Get Active risk factor guide, adults should get a weekly total of at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity. If you have a child or teen at home, they should get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Don’t think that cold weather has to slow you down. Chloe Cole, Assistant Director of Fitness and Wellness, Campus Recreation, says working out in the winter months has added benefits.
“Benefits from exercising regularly include reduced weight gain as well as improvements in sleep health, heart health, bone density and immune system. But when you exercise in colder temperatures the added benefit is that your heart does not have to work as hard and you sweat less, increasing your exercise endurance,” Cole says.
“Another benefit is sunlight. Getting that vitamin D exposure is beneficial for both your physical and mental health,” she says.
One way for you and your loved ones to get moving is to participate in the 2020-2021 Be in the Know wellness campaign. This year’s campaign runs through June 30, 2021 and includes many exciting ways for you to get and stay active, and earn up to $300 in Pulse Cash rewards.
With Virgin Pulse, Penn’s online wellness partner, Be in the Know participants have access to a robust platform where you can explore new wellness programs, resources, and Bonus Actions, receive personalized telephone coaching on various health topics, join steps and other wellness challenges, and much more. The fall 2020 Step It Up to a Better You Penn Challenge allowed participants to collectively take 54,442,298 steps over a three-week period. That’s heart healthy!
With many of us continuing to work remotely, getting active means finding ways to exercise at home. Cole provides these five tips:
- Do something you enjoy. Pick something that will encourage you to stay active on those harder to motivate days. Jump rope, improve your favorite yoga poses, or go for a longer walk with a friend. If walking with another person, remember to mask up and keep your distance.
- Break up your routine. Try breaking up your workouts into two shorter periods. Take a 30-minute walk in the morning and do a 30-minute strength circuit in the afternoon. Studies show that incorporating movement throughout the day is associated with more long-term health benefits than those that work out in the morning or evening and spend the rest of the day sedentary.
- Attend a live virtual group exercise class. Treat the class as a meeting. Sign up and put it on your calendar. Campus Recreation will hold free Virtual Group Exercise classes starting January 20.
- Work out with a friend or co-worker. Accountability partners are a great way to stay motivated and on-track. Just keep your distance and mask up, or connect online.
- Try something new. We can all get bored with doing the same workouts day after day. Consider picking a free workout from one of the thousands available online and through apps on your smartphone.
You can also register for the fitness-related workshop Maintaining Physical and Emotional Health in our Virtual World on February 1 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., where Cole will discuss the topic along with strategies for setting SMART goals and tips to stay motivated.
Human Resources’ free weekly group fitness classes for benefits-eligible staff and faculty, also provide a fun way to get your heart pumping. The classes will begin in February. Search HR’s Event and Program registration page using the “Pottruck Fitness Classes” category.
Care for Your Mind
Studies show that physical and mental/emotional health are connected. So, when you move, you’re not just doing your body good, you’re also improving your mental health. Register for the virtual workshop A Healthier You-How Mental Health Affects Physical Health on January 25 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. for information about the interconnection between fitness, nutrition, and mental health.
For more mental and emotional well-being resources, visit the MindWell at Penn webpage.
Whether you work from home or have returned to campus, get moving today. Your heart and your mind will thank you.
Penn Cares Spring Screening Tests for On-Campus Staff
The Penn Cares spring screening testing program is launching this month. This program is another critical step in Penn’s effort to resume academic, research, and clinical activities while protecting public health at the University. Testing, as well as following all public health guidance – masking, maintaining a safe physical distance, and making sure to wash your hands often – is just one piece of the solution to helping reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread.
The Penn Cares program significantly increases our testing capacity and enhances our ability to assess COVID-19 prevalence in the University community. Penn Cares screenings help us to welcome students back for the spring semester. Please read on to find out what role you will play in this historic transformation of our campus during the pandemic.
If you have any questions or concerns, please visit the Penn COVID-19 Response website.
Penn Cares Enrollment for Faculty, Staff, and Postdoctoral Candidates
Faculty, staff, and postdocs who meet the testing criteria must enroll and schedule their first screening for the first week they are on campus. Enrollment and testing compliance will be monitored starting the week of January 18, 2021.
Enrollment Criteria
Faculty, emeritus faculty and other retirees, postdocs, academic affiliates, and staff who are on campus* for four or more hours each and every week throughout the semester are required to enroll in Penn Cares screening. These criteria have been established based on federal, state and local guidelines as well as in consultation with public health experts. They are subject to change.
Should You Enroll?
Consider your work location assignment for the spring semester, then answer these questions:
- Do I work on campus every week?
- Do I work on campus four hours per week or more?
If the answer is YES TO BOTH questions, then you meet the criteria and you are required to enroll in the Penn Cares COVID-19 screening testing program. When you enroll, your weekly testing compliance will be monitored.
If the answer is NO TO EITHER question, you do not meet the criteria, so please do not enroll at this time.
If you meet the enrollment criteria, failure to enroll may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Requests for reasonable accommodations should be made to the Office of Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Programs.
How to Enroll
Once you enroll, you are required to schedule and complete weekly on-campus screening testing. You can enroll today and start scheduling your first test immediately on the COVID Scheduler.
Keep Using PennOpen Pass
All faculty and staff who will be on campus are still required to complete a daily symptom check on PennOpen Pass. Only a Green PennOpen Pass allows access to campus facilities and transit. A Red Pass provides instructions for next steps.
If you are working remotely 100% of the time or outside the Philadelphia area, or if you plan to visit the campus occasionally, we encourage you to complete PennOpen Pass every day. If you have symptoms or exposure, the Red Pass will guide you through a series of questions and you will receive clinical guidance, which may include quarantine and/or testing. You will be instructed on testing and making an appointment if your situation requires.
Gateway Testing and the Quiet Period
Gateway testing--or day of arrival testing--is required of students only. This is done to establish the baseline prevalence of COVID-19. On the day of their arrival, students who are on-campus residents must drop off their belongings and report directly to a testing site. They must then return to their College House and quarantine until they receive their test results. Students who live off campus also must perform a gateway test as soon as they arrive, and no later than January 18, 2021.
Undergraduate students living on or off campus in the Philadelphia area will be tested twice per week on preassigned dates. Faculty, postdocs, staff, and graduate students who live on campus will also be tested twice per week. Graduate students who come to campus each week will be tested weekly.
The University has opened the spring term with a "Quiet Period," lasting until February 1. During this time, student activities will be limited and all members of the University community must avoid group gatherings. The goal is to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread in these first weeks together.
What to Expect if You Are Enrolled in Penn Cares Screening
The Penn Cares screening test program uses an FDA-approved protocol and state-certified labs on campus to analyze saliva samples collected noninvasively to monitor transmission rates in the Penn population. The process--from scheduling to notification—is designed to maximize efficiency and accuracy, while guarding your safety and the health and safety of testing professionals.
Screening Testing Is by Appointment Only; walk-ins cannot be accommodated. If you are enrolled, you may make or modify your appointment at least 24 hours prior to the testing time. However, scheduling in advance improves chances of receiving your desired testing day, time, and location. Appointments are booked at 15-minute intervals on a first-come, first-served basis.
Select a day, time, and testing site by visiting the new web-based COVID Scheduling application, where you will also give consent to receive the new saliva-based test. A tip sheet provides step-by-step instructions.
You may reschedule or cancel your appointment up to 24 hours before the scheduled time.
Locations and Schedules
Testing sites span the campus. Choose the location and time that fit your schedule.
Before the Screening Test Appointment
Saliva-based testing requires a little bit of prep work. For at least 30 minutes before the scheduled testing time, refrain from certain activities, such as eating and drinking, to avoid contaminating the sample.
During and After the Screening Test Appointment
Once a Green PennOpen Pass is shown, complete touchless check-in with a current PennCard. Staff will assist you during the collection process.
Plan to spend up to 30 minutes completing the testing process. Results will be available at Penn’s COVID Results website within 48 hours. As always, remember to wear a face covering, remain physically distant, and wash hands frequently.
More details are available at the Penn Cares Spring Testing webpage. https://coronavirus.upenn.edu/content/faculty-postdocs-and-staff-spring-2020-2021-covid-19-testing-approach. Contact the COVID Resource Call Center at (215) 573-7096 and covidresource@upenn.edu with questions.
For additional faculty and staff resources, visit the Coronavirus Workplace Health and Safety pages.
Thank you for doing your part at this pivotal time.
*For the faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine, the term "on campus" does not include the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia or Veterans' Affairs facilities. If you work at the New Bolton Center, Morris Arboretum, or another Penn location, please contact your supervisor for guidance.
Rebound with Resilience
As the global pandemic continues and we cope with the aftermath of events in the nation’s capitol, the concept of resilience remains important. That’s why Human Resources is offering additional resilience education programs this spring. Another session of one of our most popular virtual workshops, Radical Resilience: Ideas for Sustainable Life Balance, takes place February 9, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. A six-part Resilience and Well-Being Workshop Series, led by Penn’s Positive Psychology Center, begins with an introductory session on February 25, from 12 pm. to 1:30 p.m.
In this interactive Radical Resilience workshop, facilitator Amma Napier will discuss the term “anti-fragile,” which was coined by New York University professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Anti-fragile takes the idea of resilience to the next level by asserting that there are conditions whereby we are not only able to bounce back, but we become even stronger as a result.
“Health and happiness are inextricably tied together and now more than ever we live in tentative circumstances in which everyone is stressed about something. Whether it is concern about social justice, the impact of the pandemic, or the unstable state of our nation, we are affected in some way and it affects our work, our relationships, and our health,” says Napier, Senior Talent Development Consultant, HR Talent Development.
“Finding strategies to strengthen the bones of our spirit, and to feed the things that make us stronger is what becoming anti-fragile means,” she says.
In the workshop participants will be given tools to increase their ability to be super-resilient and learn the three areas that help create conditions for anti-fragility:
- Permission to Be Human. This refers to the need to recognize emotions, whether anxiety or gratitude. We must embrace difficult emotions in order to feel the positive ones. When we reject negative emotions, they grow stronger and we block the positive ones. We can deal with the entire spectrum of our emotions by crying, if needed, writing about them, or talking to someone about them.
- Dealing with Stress. What allows us to continue to be energized even in the face of stress is the ability to allow time to recover from it. This applies to both physical and emotional stress and affects our mental and physical health. You can become energized through recovery by doing some simple things such as taking a walk to get away from a stressful situation, getting a good night’s sleep, or taking a day off.
- Relationships. A Harvard study that followed 700 individuals for 75 years found that the number one predictor of happiness and the number one predictor of health is relationships. These relationships can be with a partner, friend, extended family member, colleague, or someone else. Relationships should be close, intimate, supportive, and healthy. Even though living during COVID-19 has meant forming and maintaining relationships virtually, that’s okay, too, as long as the connections are deep, allowing each party to really talk about things that are important.
Register today for Radical Resilience: Ideas for Sustainable Life Balance and come out of difficult times empowered and ready to move forward.
The Resilience and Well-Being workshop series for Penn faculty and staff presents core resilience and well-being skills you can use in your personal and professional lives. During each 90-minute workshop, you’ll learn how each skill contributes to resilience and well-being and participate in group exercises with colleagues to explore the content together.
Register for the Resilience and Well-Being workshop series sessions online. We hope that this series provides you with new tools to bolster your resilience and well-being and enhance your relationships at work and at home.
For more professional and personal development programs, visit the Learn & Grow section of the Human Resources website.
Healthy Meals: Roasted Vegetables Over Rosemary Polenta
Enjoy a comforting, aromatic meal in one bowl with this vegetarian dish. It’s easy to customize your mix by roasting any colorful blend of vegetables to top your polenta or fiber-rich whole grain grits.
Click here to send us your healthy recipes and tips
Did You Know: Penn’s Access to LinkedIn Learning
The LinkedIn Learning training library is available to all Penn faculty, students, and staff with a valid PennKey. Be sure to log in at linkedinlearning.upenn.edu for full access. To track your LinkedIn Learning coursework in Knowledge Link, register for courses through knowledgelink.upenn.edu. Visit the LinkedIn Learning FAQ for details.