WalkMORE: Volunteer Walking Coach Program for Hospitalized Internal Medicine Patients

Patients admitted to hospital typically experience periods of decreased activity or bed-rest. This reduced activity level leads to deconditioning - a loss of muscle mass, muscle strength (by 2-5% per day), and muscle shortening. Even among patients who were ambulatory at the time of admission, deconditioning has been linked with deleterious effects, such as increased rates of falls, functional decline, and frailty. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the physiological stresses associated with hospitalization - including deconditioning, as well as sleep deprivation and poor nutrition - makes discharged patients vulnerable to recurrent or new illnesses and to frailty. This physiological stress-induced vulnerability has been coined post-hospital syndrome and is thought to have a role in most hospital readmissions. The investigators hypothesize that by engaging ambulatory patients to walk with trained volunteer coaches, patients will increase their amount of walking, have less deconditioning and functional decline, and consequently, fewer falls. Furthermore, the investigators anticipate that patients who walk with a trained coach will have reduced length-of-stay in hospital and decreased likelihood of readmission. Finally, as shown in other programs trialing health coaches, the investigators anticipate an overall improvement in the patient experience. Our aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of an intentional walking protocol called WalkMORE, which pairs trained volunteer coaches with ambulatory patients admitted to the Internal Medicine unit (4th floor University Hospital), aimed at decreasing deconditioning through increased walking.