Functional Nursing brings meaning back to modern nursing by integrating Functional Medicine principles—systems thinking, lifestyle influences, emotional patterns, and therapeutic...
Program Launches February 2, 2026 – Register by January 11th to save $200
Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses offers Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners a comprehensive, whole-systems approach to understanding health, healing, and human complexity through a functional medicine, root-cause lens.
This course delivers functional medicine–informed content specifically designed for nursing practice, giving you the knowledge and framework to integrate Functional Medicine concepts safely and confidently within your scope of practice.
Through 12 self-paced modules, you will explore the Functional Medicine Matrix, root-cause reasoning, and the central role of the psychosocial–spiritual terrain. You’ll learn how to apply these concepts safely and effectively in bedside care, primary care, community practice, wellness settings, or private Nurse Coaching practice.
This program equips you with the tools to think, see, and practice with greater clarity and confidence in your work as a nurse.
Functional Nursing fills a critical gap in traditional nursing education by teaching root-cause thinking, systems relationships, and whole-person interpretation.
You’ll learn to understand “what’s driving the pattern,” not just “what symptom is showing up,” helping you support patients more holistically and effectively.
The framework enhances clinical reasoning and collaboration by providing a structured approach to interpreting physiology, lifestyle, stress, trauma, and environment through safe, scope-aligned nursing actions.
Course Outcomes
Understand how story, stress, lifestyle, environment, and physiology interact to shape overall function.
Use nursing-scope reasoning to identify antecedents, triggers, mediators, and patterns of imbalance.
Help patients understand how patterns in stress, emotions, environment, and physiology shape their overall function.
Organize patient patterns and understand how systems influence one another without diagnosing.
Enhance your ability to uncover the “why” beneath symptoms through relational, narrative, and terrain-based understanding.
Learn how lab data fits within nursing scope, when nurses can collaborate or initiate testing under protocols, and when to refer to an appropriate provider.
Discuss evidence-informed supplement basics, safety considerations, and clear boundaries around what nurses can and cannot recommend.
Integrate root-cause thinking into bedside care, primary care, community health, or private nurse coaching.
Leaders in Functional Medicine & Integrative Nursing
Elizabeth is a registered nurse, nurse coach, and Functional Medicine clinic manager specializing in whole-person, functional approaches to healing. She brings two decades of nursing experience and a strong coaching foundation to her work supporting integrative, patient-centered care.
Dr. Sult is an IFM Faculty member and systems-medicine clinician with more than 30 years of Functional Medicine experience. He is known for translating complex physiology into clear, practical, whole-person guidance for both patients and practitioners.
Together, Elizabeth & Tom bring a uniquely dynamic blend of nursing wisdom, systems thinking, and Functional Medicine expertise. Their combined perspectives create a learning experience that is both deeply clinical and profoundly human.
How the Course Works
Learn through 12 recorded modules you can complete on your own schedule. You have one full year of access to the course.
Join monthly live sessions with faculty to deepen your understanding, clarify concepts, and explore real-world application of Functional Nursing principles. (Yes, they are recorded if you can't attend live!)
Engage in journaling prompts, reflective exercises, and case-based scenarios designed to help you integrate Functional Nursing into your professional practice safely and confidently.
Connect with other nurses in private, course-specific discussion forums. Share insights, ask questions, explore module concepts, and learn from the experiences of your peers.
Each module includes a short quiz to reinforce key concepts. All quizzes are open-book with unlimited attempts, designed to enhance learning—not create pressure.
Access select Institute for Functional Medicine toolkit items integrated throughout the course to help you understand functional concepts, see patterns clearly, and enhance your learning experience.
A Functional Medicine root-cause approach to healing, taught within nursing scope of practice.
Functional Nursing is a whole-systems approach that helps Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners recognize patterns, story, and underlying contributors to health – and confidently translate those insights into safe, scope-aligned nursing action.
Instead of viewing symptoms in isolation, Functional Nursing teaches you how to see the relationships between physiology, lifestyle, stress, environment, and meaning, so you can support true whole-person healing within your role as a nurse.
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A detailed look at the Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses program, detailed module overviews, career paths, and more!
The Dual Certificate Pathway combines Functional Nursing and Lifestyle Nursing into one powerful, whole-systems learning experience. This option is ideal for nurses who want a comprehensive approach that integrates root-cause reasoning with evidence-based lifestyle interventions.
By enrolling in both courses together, you save $500 and earn two separate certificates—each offering one year of access, flexible pacing, and nationally accredited contact hours.
The Functional Nursing + Lifestyle Nursing Dual Certificate Pathway includes:
Functional Nursing + Lifestyle Nursing Dual Certificate
$4,890 value – enroll in both for $3,790
Save $500 when you bundle both programs.
Courses launch on February 2, 2026.
Early registration: Enroll by January 11, 2026 and your tuition is just $3,490.
Course launches February 2, 2026! Secure early registration pricing through January 11th.
If you are interested in INCA’s Lifestyle Nursing: A Lifestyle Medicine Framework for Nurses course, sign up for the Functional Nursing + Lifestyle Nursing: Dual Certificate Pathway bundle to save $500!
Original price was: $2,395.00.$2,195.00Current price is: $2,195.00.
More than 30% of our students receive support from their employers to take our program.
All INCCP students and alumni receive a discount on specialty programs. Login to automatically apply your discount.
We honor our active-duty military members, veterans, and military-spouses with a 10% discount on all of our programs.
INCA is committed to making our programs accessible to all nurses. Multiple payment options are available, including:
You will need two textbooks for this course:
Yes, 65+ contact hours. Exact contact hours will be announced in December 2025.
Integrative Nurse Coach Academy is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number 17700.
Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses is designed for Registered Nurses and Advanced Practice Nurses who want to deepen their understanding of whole-person health and integrate Functional Medicine–informed concepts into their professional practice—always within nursing scope.
This program is especially suited for:
You want to move beyond symptom management and understand the patterns and root causes that shape health and disease.
You believe healing involves physiology, lifestyle, meaning, stress, relationships, and environment—and you want a framework that honors all of it.
You want a deeper functional lens you can use in coaching conversations, holistic assessments, and patient partnerships.
You want to bring better clarity and reasoning to complex cases, whether you’re working at the bedside or in outpatient settings.
You want to integrate systems thinking, root-cause reasoning, and patient education into your advanced practice, with clear scope boundaries for labs, supplements, and clinical collaboration.
This course gives you a strong foundation for future IFM education and provides access to IFM-exclusive discounts for one year after completion.
Starting February 2, 2026, you will have course access within 1 business day of registering.
Note: Course opens February 2, 2026!
You have one full year from the date of enrollment to complete the Functional Nursing course. The program is fully self-paced, allowing you to move through the 12 modules on a timeline that works for you. Most nurses finish the coursework within 8–12 weeks, but you may progress faster or slower depending on your schedule.
The course also includes Monthly Meetups with faculty, offered throughout the year Live attendance is optional, but to receive your ANCC-accredited contact hour certificate, you must either attend 4 meetups live or watch at least 4 recordings over the 12-month access period.
Yes. You will have lifetime access to the course videos and slide decks.
You can return to the material at any time, even after you’ve completed the program.
However, to earn your certificate and contact hours, you must complete all required components within 1 year of your enrollment date.
Please note that IFM Toolkit items are licensed for one year from the date you enroll. After that time, they are no longer accessible due to licensing restrictions.
The course also includes Monthly Meetups with faculty, offered throughout the year Live attendance is optional, but to receive your ANCC-accredited contact hour certificate, you must either attend 4 meetups live or watch at least 4 recordings over the 12-month access period.
Functional Nursing: a Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses is unique because it is the only functional medicine–informed course built specifically for the nursing profession and offered in partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM).
While many Functional Medicine programs are designed for physicians or mixed-provider audiences, this curriculum translates systems biology, root-cause reasoning, and the Functional Medicine Matrix directly into nursing scope, ensuring everything you learn can be applied safely and effectively in your role.
All concepts—labs, supplements, physiology, assessment, story, and systems thinking—are taught through a nursing lens with explicit scope boundaries for RNs and APRNs.
You’ll receive select IFM Toolkit items, curriculum elements reviewed with IFM, and teaching from IFM Faculty (Thomas Sult, MD), plus a full year of exclusive IFM program discounts after completing the course. This can significantly reduce your cost if you choose to pursue IFM’s certification pathway.
You’ll learn how to use functional concepts in bedside nursing, primary care, community health, education, and nurse coaching—not just in long consults or private practice.
This course blends Functional Medicine, lifestyle influences, story, terrain, and presence-based nursing in a way that no other program offers.
Self-paced modules, monthly meetups, discussion forums, knowledge checks, IFM resources, and case-based learning provide a comprehensive and supportive structure.
INCA is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation and awards contact hours for this course.
No. Nurse Coach Board Certification eligibility is only granted by completing the Integrative Nurse Coach® Certificate Program (INCCP).
This Functional Nursing course does not meet the eligibility criteria required by the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC) for the NC-BC or HWNC-BC examinations.
However, if you are already a Board-Certified Nurse Coach, this course does provide ANCC-accredited contact hours that can be used to meet the continuing education requirements for renewing your Nurse Coach certification.
At this time, there are no nationally recognized nursing specialty certifications in Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine is not formally regulated as a nursing specialty by ANCC, AHNCC, or any other national nursing credentialing body.
Some programs may offer a “certification,” but these are not recognized nursing specialty credentials. Nurses should always verify who is issuing any Functional Medicine “certification” and whether it is a legitimate, nationally recognized credential.
The only widely respected and formally recognized Functional Medicine certifications are offered by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM):
This credential is for licensed providers with the broadest scopes of practice—including MDs, DOs, NDs, NPs, and PAs—who demonstrate competency in applying Functional Medicine to patient care.
This credential is for licensed health practitioners in specialized disciplines who apply Functional Medicine within their professional scope.
These are the only reputable Functional Medicine certifications, and IFM determines all eligibility and educational requirements.
Our Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses program provides a strong, nursing-aligned Functional Medicine foundation, but it does not confer a regulated nursing specialty certification.
Yes. The program is offered in educational partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). This partnership allows us to integrate select IFM resources, faculty, and educational enhancements into the course, while maintaining a clear nursing-scope focus and an independent curriculum designed specifically for RNs and APRNs.
Through this partnership, you’ll receive several unique benefits:
You’ll have access to select IFM-licensed toolkit items woven throughout the course to support your learning. These tools help you understand functional concepts, recognize patterns in patient stories, and connect systems-based relationships more clearly. Toolkit resources are licensed for one year from your enrollment date.
The course is co-led by Thomas Sult, MD, a long-standing IFM Faculty member and author of Just Be Well. His perspective provides deep insight into systems biology, the Functional Medicine Matrix, and the clinical reasoning behind functional approaches.
Portions of the curriculum have been reviewed with IFM to ensure alignment with Functional Medicine’s core concepts, adapted appropriately for nursing scope and practice.
Upon completing this course, you receive access to exclusive discounts on IFM programs for one full year, including AFMCP® and the Advanced Practice Modules. This gives you the opportunity to pursue additional Functional Medicine education and certification at a reduced cost if you choose.
While this course is informed by IFM’s conceptual framework, it does not replace IFM’s certification pathway and does not qualify you for IFM certification on its own. IFM determines its own eligibility and educational requirements for certification.
INCA’s Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses is guided by the Institute for Functional Medicine’s (IFM) core concepts and competencies, and is designed to help nurses develop a strong, scope-aligned foundation in functional medicine.
However, completing this course does not automatically qualify you for IFM certification.
IFM sets its own eligibility and educational requirements for certification.
At this time, IFM’s official certification pathway requires completing their AFMCP course plus six Advanced Practice Modules, along with meeting licensure and practice requirements. While our course aligns conceptually with Functional Medicine competencies, IFM only recognizes their own core curriculum as counting directly toward certification requirements.
That said, as part of this program you will receive access to exclusive discounts on IFM’s certification-qualifying programs for one year after completing Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses.
If IFM certification is your goal, we encourage you to review IFM’s most current guidance to confirm your eligibility and plan your path forward.
You are responsible for ensuring you meet all IFM requirements.
The Functional Nursing course and the Lifestyle Nursing course are complementary but distinct. Each course teaches a different part of whole-systems, integrative nursing practice.
Functional Nursing focuses on root-cause reasoning and whole-systems understanding. You’ll learn how to interpret patterns, story, physiology, stress, lifestyle, and environment through the Functional Medicine Matrix—translated fully within nursing scope.
This course teaches you why patterns occur and how to understand the deeper contributors to imbalance.
Lifestyle Nursing teaches evidence-based lifestyle interventions and behavior-change strategies based on the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine.
You’ll learn practical ways to support patients in improving nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, social connection, and substance use.
This course focuses on how change happens and how to guide patients in adopting healthier habits.
Functional Nursing = root causes, systems thinking, patterns, story, Matrix, terrain.
Lifestyle Nursing = lifestyle behaviors, evidence-based interventions, coaching for habit change.
Both align with nursing scope and complement each other. Many nurses choose to take both through the Dual Certificate Pathway to gain a complete, whole-person practice framework.
A $500 discount is provided when signing up for both programs simultaneously.
This program is a newly designed and fully updated curriculum that reflects the evolution of functional, whole-systems nursing practice and the direction of INCA’s specialty programs moving forward. While our previous Functional Medicine for Nurses™ course introduced foundational concepts, this new program program goes further in scope, depth, and structure.
Key differences include:
The program is built around the Functional Medicine Matrix as translated through nursing scope, emphasizing systems thinking, terrain, story, and whole-person interpretation in a clearer, more cohesive way.
The course is co-led by Elizabeth Sult, BSN, RN (INCCP alumna) and Thomas Sult, MD, an IFM Faculty member and author of Just Be Well. Their integrated nursing + clinical systems expertise brings a dynamic and completely new perspective to the curriculum.
Every module has been restructured to ensure nurses can apply functional concepts safely within scope—something this new program emphasizes more explicitly and consistently.
All 12 modules have been rebuilt from the ground up, with fresh material on systems biology, terrain, root-cause reasoning, environmental health, supplement safety, lab considerations, narrative assessment, and integration.
This new program includes licensed access to selected IFM Toolkit resources, curriculum elements reviewed with IFM, exclusive IFM discount benefits, and guidance from an active IFM Faculty member—components that were not part of the previous course.
The updated format includes self-paced modules, monthly meetups, reflective practice, discussion forums, IFM toolkit resources, and module-by-module knowledge checks.
Together, these updates make the Functional Nursing: A Functional Medicine Framework for Nurses program a new generation of functional education for nurses—deeper, more cohesive, more aligned with nursing practice, and more supportive of whole-person, systems-based care.
You’ll recognize some foundational concepts, but this is a fully redesigned program with new faculty, new modules, and a deeper alignment with nursing practice.
This program gives you a strong working understanding of Functional Medicine principles and teaches you how to apply them safely and effectively within a nursing framework. You’ll learn how to use whole-systems thinking, root-cause awareness, narrative understanding, and scope-aligned functional strategies in any setting where nurses practice.
Many of the most powerful methods used in Functional Medicine are fully within the scope of an RN—education, pattern recognition, lifestyle support, environment awareness, presence, and partnership—and can be applied immediately in your current role. APRNs have additional prescriptive authority, but a large percentage of Functional Medicine practitioners (including many nurses) provide excellent care without relying on prescriptions.
You will also explore when laboratory data may be helpful, when it may not be necessary, and how nurses in different roles (RNs and APRNs) can collaborate around labs without diagnosing or acting outside scope.
Throughout the course, you’ll work through case studies and implementation strategies that help you bring Functional Nursing into real-world practice. The primary goal is to prepare you to apply whole-systems, Functional Medicine–informed nursing in any healthcare environment.
Upon completing the program, you may choose to identify yourself as a Functional Nursing professional and integrate this framework into the practice setting of your choice. For some nurses, this becomes part of bedside care, primary care, or community health; for others, it aligns beautifully with roles in nurse coaching, consulting, education, or entrepreneurship. You’ll also explore potential niches within Functional Nursing so you can build a practice that reflects your strengths and passions.
Nurses are increasingly expected to navigate chronic illness, complex symptoms, and multidimensional patient needs—yet traditional nursing education often stops at symptom management. Functional Nursing fills that gap by integrating the science of systems biology with the art and presence of nursing.
You will learn to recognize the underlying contributors to imbalance, understand the interconnected nature of health, and identify the modifiable factors—emotional, relational, biochemical, lifestyle, and environmental—that shape patient outcomes. This perspective not only enhances your clinical reasoning, but also strengthens your ability to collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, advocate for whole-person care, and support meaningful change.
Functional Nursing empowers you to move beyond “What is the diagnosis?” and toward “What is driving this pattern—and what can I do as a nurse to help?” It’s a transformative approach for nurses who want to deepen their practice, expand their impact, and reconnect with the true vision of holistic, integrative nursing.
You may request a refund in writing to support@inursecoach.com within 1 business day of registering for the program.
However, once you have accepted the course invitation or accessed course materials, you are no longer eligible for a refund.
All approved refunds will have a minimum 6% processing fee deducted to cover transaction and administrative costs.
You have one full year from your enrollment date to complete all course requirements, submit the final evaluation, and receive your certificate. This one-year completion window cannot be extended for any reason, and enrollment cannot be paused or put on hold.
Even after your one-year completion window closes, you will continue to have lifetime access to the course videos and slide decks.
However, access to IFM Toolkit resources remains limited to one year due to licensing restrictions.
NEW!
For Immediate Release
MIAMI, Florida. – September 23, 2022 –
The Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy | International Nurse Coach Association (INCA), the global leaders in nurse coaching training and holistic nursing continuing education courses, and the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), the leading voice for functional medicine, announce a new partnership designed to enhance and elevate the role of nurses and nurse practitioners in the field of functional medicine.
As the most trusted profession for over 20 years, IFM recognizes the key role nurses should play in using a root cause approach to healthcare. That’s why the organization has chosen to partner with INCA to support the growing number of nursing professionals seeking options for a respected, comprehensive functional medicine educational program exclusively for nurses.
With over 100 nurses enrolled since the course launched in 2022, Functional Medicine for Nurses™provides registered nurses and nurse practitioners with a robust foundation for implementing functional medicine practices within both the registered nurse and nurse practitioner scopes of practice.
To further enhance learning and implementation, IFM is providing INCA’s Functional Medicine for Nurses™ students with access to valuable resources that coincide with each learning module within the course.
“Our partnership gives students access to a wealth of resources and support from the most respected source in functional medicine- the Institute for Functional Medicine,” states Functional Medicine for Nurses™ Course Creator and lead faculty, Brigitte Sager, MSN, ARNP, FNP-C, NCMP, NC-BC, AFMC. “It also lends credibility to this exciting education opportunity for nurses seeking to learn functional medicine from a respected source.”
IFM is also providing INCA students with a complimentary one-year student membership, which features numerous discounts for IFM programs for nurses who wish to expand their functional medicine knowledge. Additionally, INCA is extending a tuition discount to all IFM nurse members on INCA programs.
“IFM recognizes the critical role of nursing professionals in advancing the transformation of healthcare through a functional medicine approach,” states Amy R. Mack, MSES/MPA, IFM chief executive officer. “INCA, which is founded and managed by nurses, is well positioned to support the work in this space.”
As the practice of functional medicine continues to proliferate globally, it is imperative that nurses are highly trained in functional and integrative medicine practices to ensure safe and effective interventions for patients and clients. This partnership formally recognizes and emphasizes the pivotal role of the nurse in functional medicine practice.
About INCA
The Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy | International Nurse Coach Association is the global leader in nurse coach training and offers a variety of holistic nursing continuing education programs. Founded in 2010 by innovative nurse leaders Barbara Dossey and Susan Luck, INCA expanded its global reach in 2019 by converting its leading Integrative Nurse Coach® Certificate Program to an online format with the assistance of new partners Karen Avino & Ronald Kanka. INCA offers a variety of online integrative & holistic specialty nursing programs, including:
About IFM
The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) is the leading voice for functional medicine and advancing the transformation of health care for patients and practitioners worldwide. IFM is a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization that believes functional medicine can help every individual reach their full potential for health and well-being. Founded in 1991 and dedicated to the widespread adoption of functional medicine, IFM works to advance education and training, clinical patient care, research, and outcomes in functional medicine worldwide. For more information, please visit IFM.org.
About Functional Medicine
Functional medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual. The functional medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness.
