Over the past few years since I became a Nurse Coach there has been an increase in the number of Nurse Coaching programs available for registered nurses and advanced practice nurses to consider in their decision to become board certified Nurse Coaches.
The field of Nurse Coaching is growing as well as the need for this specialty within the nursing profession. The rates of chronic disease including metabolic, cardiac, respiratory, and cancer will have a global economic cost of over 47 trillion by 2030 (Hacker, 2024).
Health systems are already overworked, understaffed, and struggling to meet the demands of chronic conditions calling for a shift in the paradigm of care (Bland, 2025). According to Dr. Jeffrey S. Bland, with the available technology, longitudinal research, and AI, a shift from diagnosis to prognosis is driving more personalized care; this is where Nurse Coaching shines.
Searching for a new nursing role
When I was searching for a new nursing role, I had some criteria in mind such as working on prevention of chronic conditions, scheduling flexibility, leadership potential, collegial collaboration with other health care professionals, alignment with my value system and beliefs, self-growth, learning, and the role honored the whole person. I had overcome a serious cardiac condition that needed surgery but was reversed through lifestyle behavior changes I made with my cardiologist.
Nurse Coaching incorporated all the criteria and more, but I was led to down another path to consider before I found what I was truly looking for.
Health Coaching
I thought about possibly becoming a health coach, specifically a Whole30 coach based on the Whole30 program or a Primal Health Coach because I loved the aspect of helping others with nutritional changes, but they did not include my experience, knowledge, and years of education I had in nursing.
I would be labeled a “health” coach despite having a nursing license. Being a health coach would limit my professional development and autonomy.
Wasn’t there something I could do that incorporated both?
Discovering the Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy
Serendipity happened! I saw a press release from the Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy in partnership with the Institute for Functional Medicine for a program being offered. I went straight to the website and investigated the program.
I also had the opportunity to speak with a graduate of the program and ask questions. She became one of my dearest friends and mentor in Nurse Coaching. I stepped into the process deeper.
What stood out to me
What stood out to me in my research was the ANCC NCPD accreditation of the Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy programs; and held to the highest standards ensuring evidence-based professional development as well as the endorsement by the American Holistic Nurses Association. I wanted to continue my professional development as a nurse with the highest standards and knowledge.
The founders of the Integrative Nurse Coach® movement as well as pioneers in Holistic Nursing were also the founders of the Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy. I would learn from the leaders in the field who were also visionary nurses. Nurse Theorist, Dr. Barbara Dossey along with Susan Luck and Bonney Gulino Schaub developed the Theory of Integrative Nurse Coaching establishing an evidence-based framework in which to practice Nurse Coaching. Setting the highest standards for providing evidence-based nursing care to clients, families, and communities in Nurse Coaching encounters.
The Integrative Health and Wellness Assessment™ tool was another evidence-based intervention I could utilize in my Nurse Coaching helping to ascertain areas of importance and focus for clients. Once a client has identified areas to focus on initially, Nurse Coaches use holistic, evidence-based interventions alongside clients, co-creating an initial plan, but moving towards longer term wellbecoming.
Wellbecoming is a lifelong journey evolving towards becoming the person you want to be (Gordon & France, 2024). Who doesn’t want to create a more beautiful life? It is a journey I have been taking for the past eight years since I chose to become an Integrative Nurse Coach®.
Yes, I would choose this path and program again for several reasons.
Over the course of my Nurse Coaching journey, I’ve changed. I no longer consider myself a novice when working with clients, families, and communities. I’ve grown alongside my co-partners; those who share their hopes, dreams, and struggles help me access my own growth potentials.
Nurse Coaching is not something I do to others and then receive payment for helping them; it is something I have become alongside them… and there is nothing more rewarding in my life.
The partnerships I have created in this joy-filled work as a Nurse Coach have also enriched my personal life … and that is for another blog.
If you desire to grow yourself, learn about your own wellbecoming alongside your professional career goals within a community of like-minded nurses who value being authentic leaders and shifting the paradigm of healthcare, please reach out to us. We truly live what we offer.
As Barbie Dossey always says, “Welcome home.”
Ready to explore whether nurse coaching is the next step in your own nursing journey?
References
- Bland, J. S. (2025). The Paradigm-Shifting Future of Health Care: Rise of Predictive, Personalized Lifestyle Medicine. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, 24(6), 10–12.
- Gordon, S. C., & France, N. E. M. (2024). Co-creating a holistic healing environment in nursing practice. Cognella.
- Hacker, K. (2024). The Burden of Chronic Disease. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 8(1), 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2023.08.005
As a young girl, Holly was drawn to nature and helping others which provided deep connection to others. It was while volunteering as a candy striper that she dove deeper into interacting with patients and families and planted the seeds of a career in healthcare. Her desire to pursue nursing cemented while in college after a serendipitous meeting with a Nurse Practitioner. After attending Purdue University for three years studying the natural sciences, she fulfilled her dream to become a nurse and proudly graduated from Akron City Hospital’s Idabelle Firestone School of Nursing in Akron, Ohio with her nursing diploma. She went on to obtain her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Akron with a focus on the health and wellbeing of children as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She was awarded ANCC’s credential of Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in 1996 until 2001. After taking some time to stay at home and homeschool her children, she pursued recertification as a Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in 2021. She is currently combining her love for children, families, and teaching as both a PNP and Nurse Coach.
She has had a lifelong interest in the impact of nutrition on a person’s wellbeing, along with alternative healing therapies, and the mind, body, and spirit connections to a person’s wellbeing. In 2017 she attended the International Nurse Coach Association program and obtained her Board Certification from AHNCC as an Integrative Nurse Coach® in 2018. She went on to obtain additional advanced training in Clinical Nutrition from the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine’s Plant Based Prevention of Disease Conference.
She established Life Cycle Balance LLC in 2018 and has led numerous online and community wellness seminars and webinars on topics ranging from bearing witness to suffering, stress management, nutrition, brain health, caregiver stress, self-care renewal techniques, and non-violent communication techniques from the Center for Non-Violent Communication. She has completed advanced training as a facilitator for Non-Violent Communication and Healing Circles Global. In 2020 she presented a workshop at the South Eastern Theatre Conference (SETC) in Louisville, KY on using NVC starting with yourself.
She volunteers with the Panhandle Health Medical Reserve Corps. in Idaho, in her church, and community. Her passions include her family, learning Latin and American Sign Language, reading, cycling long distances, hiking and traveling.
Her future dreams include developing additional programs to provide healing and nurturing for children and families, creating a wellness center, and writing a book about being a Nurse Coach and healing from trauma.
