Title: Health practices and disease acquisition experiences of university personnel
Abstract:
This study was undertaken to explore the status along the health-illness (HI) continuum of six (6) purposively selected university personnel. The study also delved into the participants’ personal and work-related health practices and their roles to disease acquisition as well as their explored their concepts of a healthy university. The phenomenological method of qualitative design was utilized in explicating the experiences of the participants that help provide understanding of the essence and meaning of the experiences being explored. The meanings of those experiences are guided by theories of health and illness identified in this paper and Colaizzi’s method (1978) for data analysis was used in identifying the emergent themes. As a result, the analysis yielded seven (7) emergent themes in the Aspect of Status Along the HI continuum, eleven (11) in the Aspect of Personal Health Practices, seven (7) in the Aspect of Work-Related Health Practices and eight (8) in the Aspect of Healthy University. It can be gleaned that the experience of having been diagnosed with dreaded diseases is a myriad of encounters signifying the complexity of the whole experience. Moreover, the findings revealed that it is important to maintain positivity and adequate support system to ensure a more meaningful journey. Hence, this research is a manifestation that the establishment of a healthy university is very possible.
Audioence Take Away Notes:
• The audience will be able to understand the plight of university personnel in terms of personal and work-related health practices that lead to disease acquisition
• The audience will also be able to comprehend the possibility of leading the call for establishing a healthy university considering the experiences of Filipino university professors and personnel
• These new knowledge will be very helpful for the audience in terms of designing more creative ways to establish and/or maintain a healthy workplace. If this is possible, more caring and supportive workplaces shall be made available by administrators and managers so that people can work better, more efficiently and more happily
