Shifting to Wellness is Canada’s most comprehensive shiftwork lifestyle-training program. Our goal is to enhance the health and wellness of employees and their families by helping them cope with the rigors of working non-traditional hours. In the end, everyone benefits when we achieve our goal; employees, families, employers, health professionals and society in general.

The Shifting to Wellness Program represents the “Voluntary Health Practice” component of a comprehensive workplace health initiative (see figure 1 below¹). The Voluntary Health Practice approach refers to the efforts within a workplace to help people modify their personal lifestyle behaviours.¹ Shiftworkers’ lifestyle choices are key determinants of their health and safety and the health and safety of our organizations and communities.

The Shifting to Wellness program focuses on solutions – helping shiftworkers develop useful strategies for dealing with the issues surrounding a shiftwork lifestyle. Shifting to Wellness understands the necessity of twenty-four hour work. Consequently, we have developed a program that addresses health and safety concerns associated with shiftwork while recognizing the need to support the requirement for shiftwork in the workplace. The program provides important information about shiftwork and the effect it has on health and quality of life for shiftworkers on, and off, the job. The program helps shiftworkers identify that the choices they make in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, sleep, communication, family, stress and time management affect their health, job performance and safety, job satisfaction and ability to cope with their unique lifestyle needs.

To date, 406 Shifting to Wellness Employee Course and 32 Shifting to Wellness Train the Trainer Courses have been delivered to over 12,500 employees and 400 trainers across Canada. This includes the program having been integrated into the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (SAIT) new ‘Rail Traffic Control’ program and now being part of their Corporate Training and Continuing Education Department’s course offerings. As well, a partnership with Canadian Pacific Railway that has trained thousands of workers to date and will eventually train over 20,000 CPR employees across Canada and the United States with the Shifting to Wellness methodology.

Shifting to Wellness has achieved (in May of 2000) a significant level of recognition from the Alberta Public Health Association. The program was selected (from over 65 submissions) as one of the top 6 outstanding health promotion programs in Alberta.