Yoga for Wellness: An Innovative Educational Intervention for Health Professions Students.

Context: Health professional trainees need wellness skills. Yoga has been proven to improve wellness and decrease stress in health professionals.

Aim: We aim to assess whether educating health profession students about yoga leads to integrating yoga into their lives for personal wellness.

Subjects and methods: A health promotion curriculum focused on ten evidence-based interventions (including yoga) was delivered to health profession students (medical, nursing, physical therapy, and behavioral health). Participants completed unidentified electronic surveys immediately after, 3 and 6 months later. Data are presented using descriptive statistics, themes, and representative quotes.

Results: Five hundred and fifty-two students completed the curriculum, from which 150 were interested in yoga, reviewed evidence about the effectiveness of yoga, and practiced yoga for a week. The interested students noted that integrating yoga was achievable, realistic, and relevant. After having team discussions about all of the interventions, 12.5%, 10%, and 11% of the respondents reported practicing yoga immediately after, 3 and 6 months after, respectively.

Conclusions: This curriculum was an effective intervention for health professions trainees to develop yoga wellness skills.