We are excited to announce that Malia Pearson, RN, BSN, is the new Director of Nursing for TotalWellness.

She has a bachelor's degree in business and nursing. Malia has worked in a variety of health care settings, including inpatient, home infusion, and medical devices. Malia also assisted with COVID-19 shots and COVID-19 testing for our Omaha clients during this past year.  

In a short Q&A, Malia shares her background and thoughts on joining the TotalWellness team.

Each year, TotalWellness collects extensive data to better understand the health status of U.S. employees. In 2018 alone, we conducted over 100,000 biometric screenings across workplaces in the United States.

Our standard biometric screening consist of a variety of health measures including:  

• Cholesterol
• Blood sugar
• Body Mass Index (BMI)
• Blood pressure
• Waist circumference

These screenings offer pertinent insight to the well-being and health of employees. Once the results are finalized, we share a report with each company’s wellness team to better support employees through wellness programming.

Now, we want to share the nationwide results with you.

The TotalWellness Scheduling System is a powerful tool. As a contractor, it’s basically your home base. Your go-to. Your best friend. For that reason, it’s incredibly important to understand what it can do, and to keep it updated with your current information.

If you’ve worked in the industry for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Independent Contractor” thrown around quite a bit. You signed up to work some wellness events, and people keep calling you a contractor. But what exactly does that mean?

Basically, working as an independent contractor means you’re self-employed. It means you’re not technically employed by TotalWellness. Rather, companies like TotalWellness work with you to staff wellness events.

If you’re working wellness events with TotalWellness, there are a variety of services we expect you to know how to provide. There are some things that you just need to know—and we’re confident your professional training has afforded you those skills!

We need you to know those services because with our large magnitude of events—and the fact that they’re all across the country—we don’t have the capacity to train you for a whole new skill. It’s not a good idea to train “on-the-go” either, so we don’t want to put you in that situation.

The services you’ll need to know are fairly standard and don’t usually cause a lot of trouble for most contractors.

Handling supplies is one of the primary contractor’s responsibilities at any TotalWellness event. That means that the primary contractor is also responsible for returning supply shipments to TotalWellness after the event is over.

It’s important to get supplies back to us in a correct, complete and timely manner. That’s because even though the event itself is done, our job isn’t done. We need the return shipment to complete our clients’ expectations and provide them with event summaries.

A return shipment includes all completed paperwork, leftover vaccine and supplies and equipment. Essentially anything we sent to you that wasn’t used or thrown away should be sent back to us.

As a wellness professional, you need to interact with all types of people in all stages of life at your wellness events. That includes pregnant women.

It’s a great thing to come across pregnant participants at wellness events. These women should be more in tune with their health than the average person because the healthier they are, the better their pregnancy will be. Attending a wellness event is a great step for a pregnant woman to learn more about her health, and how her pregnancy is impacting her health.

The easiest way to ensure you’ll show up at a wellness event with effective, non-damaged flu vaccine is to store it properly the entire time it’s in your possession. Remember that the primary contractor is responsible for receiving vaccine shipments, storing vaccine and transporting vaccine to events.

You could be a primary contractor with multiple other secondary contractors. But you could also be a primary contractor if you’re the only contractor working your flu event.

There are a few things to keep in mind when storing vaccine for your next flu event. Check them out here, but make sure you also read through the details in the “Flu Event Procedures” section of the TotalWellness Contractor Manual (which is found in the Scheduling System).

When you work a TotalWellness event, you’ll have one of two titles. You might be a primary contractor or a secondary contractor. It’s important to know which role you’re filling at any given event because it won’t always be the same, and the duties associated with each are different.

At our flu shot events, we use the VanishPoint® syringes. These syringes have automated needle retraction to help reduce your risk for exposure to the contaminated needle. They’re a single-use syringe that can only be used with the attached needle. 

We send 1mL, 1-inch needle VanishPoint® safety syringes and 3mL, 1 1/2-inch needle VanishPoint® safety syringes to events with multi-dose vials of vaccine. You can easily tell the difference between the two sizes of VanishPoint® syringes by looking at the end of the plunger. The 1mL, 1-inch needle VanishPoint®safety syringe plunger ends are clear. The 3mL, 1 1/2-inch needle VanishPoint® safety syringe plunger ends are orange. When manufacturer filled syringes are used, we send 1-inch and 1 1/2-inch safety needles. 

For the most part, VanishPoint® syringes work like any other syringe you’ve used. We thought we’d give you a little overview, though, so you know exactly what to expect.