 |
Jayme Nekuda |
A participant in more than 20 marathons, Jayme Nekuda began her career at UNMC in a proverbial sprint, completing in two months a lengthy application that would garner the Med Center its first Well Workplace designation.
Since that time, Nekuda’s pace hasn’t slowed much. She has spearheaded fitness and wellness efforts, implementing countless programs that have resulted in a healthier campus and UNMC’s current national designation as a Gold Level Well Workplace.
Nekuda, manager of Health Promotion and the Center for Healthy Living, has received the Chancellor’s Gold ‘U’ Award for June, for her outstanding efforts.
“Jayme is innovative, a role model and a true friend of the employees at UNMC,” one nominator wrote. “In a time when diabetes and obesity are increasing at an alarming rate, the employees at UNMC have been privileged to have the leadership of Jayme Nekuda to help eliminate/reduce these risks and help them discover a better quality of life.”
Nekuda is a little sheepish about accepting the accolades. She’s not timid, however, about sharing the benefits of health and wellness with others.
|
Title: Manager, Health Promotion & Center for Healthy Living Job responsibilities: To manage the UNMC fitness facility and be responsible for the campus health promotion program, which involves periodically assessing the population’s needs and then developing, implementing and evaluating these programs. Joined UNMC: August, 1996 One day I’d like to: Qualify for and compete in the Ironman Triathlon Greatest personal achievement: Qualifying for and running the Boston marathon. |
“If people don’t have their health, all of the other stuff doesn’t matter,” said Nekuda, whose office is filled with posters commemorating the marathons in which she has run. “It’s easy for individuals to fall into unhealthy behaviors or lifestyles.”
A native of Loup County, Neb., Nekuda began running in college as a way to stay in shape. She received her bachelor’s degree from UNL, then earned a master’s degree in human nutrition. She plans to earn her Ph.D. in adult education and gerontology within a year and a half.
Upon hearing a speaker on health promotion and wellness, Nekuda said, she decided to pursue a career in the field. She landed a part-time position in health promotion at Central States Insurance. Eventually, the job became full time, and she later was promoted to director of health promotion, a position in which she served for eight years.
During her time at Central States, she began to teach at Nebraska Methodist College, in its certificate program and later in its master’s program for health promotion. She has continued in that role for 11 years.
“I enjoy teaching, just as I enjoy my work at UNMC,” Nekuda said. “I don’t really have a typical day, and that’s something that I enjoy. I like change and I like the variety. The campus is constantly growing and changing.”
Upon being hired at UNMC in August 1996, Nekuda had two months to complete the application for the Well Workplace designation from the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA). She met with campus leaders and groups that were currently offering some of the needed programs that touched on some of the major health issues of the employee population, such as the Olson Center for Women’s Health, the College of Nursing and others. She completed the application on time, and UNMC earned its first designation, the Bronze Level Well Workplace.
Since then, Nekuda has been instrumental in implementing programs in several areas, such as weight management, smoking cessation, fitness and stress management. The Center for Health Living now offers several fitness classes, Intramural activities, a lending library/meditation room and opportunities for massage therapy and healing touch, among other avenues for wellness.
“Stress, exercise and nutrition have been constant themes, as far as the most significant needs of employees in which to focus on,” Nekuda said. “One essential goal is to try and encourage more people to be involved in fitness and activity, in general.”
Nekuda said that the more aggregate data that can be collected – such as health-care claims, workers’ compensation claims, faculty/employee assistance reports, culture audits, needs/interest assessments, sick leave, etc. — the better the campus can tailor health promotion programs to specific employees’ needs.
“Consequently, this will lead to having a bigger impact on the health of our greatest assets – our employees,” she said.
Currently, Nekuda said, Med Center officials are interested in looking at aggregate reports of health-care claims data to determine which claims are most prevalent.
“Our focus is to help employees become as healthy as possible, thus impacting their overall quality of life,” Nekuda said.
Nekuda said the approach she took to running marathons has applied to her everyday life.
“Running a marathon helped me to realize that if you break a goal down into smaller increments, – or miles, in the case of training for a marathon – it’s much less overwhelming and this same concept can be carried over into other aspects of a person’s life,” Nekuda said. “It has impacted almost everything I do or have done since then.”
Nekuda usually runs five miles, five times a week. She also roller-blades and bikes. One day, she said, she’d like to qualify for and participate in the Ironman Triathlon.