Nursing is a passion profession. If you have been thinking about getting into nursing and you have a passion for truly helping others, holistic nursing might be your ticket to a satisfying career.
What Is Holistic Nursing?
Holistic nursing is the practice of helping patients heal as a whole instead of just focusing on symptoms and their bodies alone according to the American Holistic Nurses Association. To become a holistic nurse, you first need to be a registered nurse. As a holistic nurse, you will have a different approach to treating patients compared to traditional nursing. You will take a much more organic approach to help patients heal. When you work with The Nurse Coach Collective, you can get into holistic nursing easily no matter what specialty you are coming from.
The American Nurses Association has officially recognized holistic nursing as a nursing specialty since 2006. It’s not a specialty that is dedicated to a specific setting or type of patient, but rather one that can be applied to every patient regardless of demographic or setting.
How Does It Differ From a More Traditional Nurse?
When it comes to holistic nursing, the specialty differs from traditional nursing because instead of focusing on managing symptoms, you focus on improving the patient’s whole health and well-being. In a traditional setting, you would primarily be focused on helping a patient heal their body. Whereas, holistic nurses will look to heal a patient’s mental, emotional, and even spiritual health. As a holistic nurse, you will effectively be acting as an instrument of healing.
One of the main things you would need to do to become a holistic nurse is to embrace self-care and spirituality in your own daily life. Along with this, you would need to take the same whole-body caring approach to yourself.
The main foundation of this approach has to do with how individual interactions can impact the standard of care for patients. How you interact with patients will directly impact their healing process. If you, as a nurse, are emotionally unavailable and exhausted, you are likely not going to deliver high-quality care for your patients. They will be unable to truly heal because they will be in an environment that is not conducive to total body healing. Any nurse trained in holistic care will receive all kinds of training that teach them to make self-care a priority. This leads to having much healthier and more well-rested nurses. It also makes them increasingly available emotionally for their patients to connect with. This can help to produce a much more friendly environment that is conducive to total body healing.
What Are Some Of The Core Values Of A Holistic Nurse?
There are (5) core values for holistic nursing. These include:
- Holistic Education
The primary basis of this type of nursing includes having a philosophical principle of “holism.” Also, having a dedication to continuous learning and self-reflection.
- Research and Ethics
This type of nursing specialty is purely based on nursing theories, qualified research, and ethical principles that allow for much more thoughtful practice.
- Self-Care
Anyone trained in holistic nursing will get the requisite training that teaches them the importance of self-care so they can help their patients through reflection.
- Better Communication
Anyone in holistic nursing will be tasked with openly communicating with their patients to ensure that the treatment is transparent and that both parties agree upon the healing goals.
- Caring Process
As a holistic nurse, you will be embracing a caring process that prioritizes solving patients’ issues and addressing their needs in an environment that is caring and authentic.
Careers In Holistic Nursing
If you want to get into holistic nursing, you can practice in various settings. Not only that, but you can also take various career paths. You will find some holistic nurses will work in more traditional settings and some will work privately. Here are some of the settings you can practice in:
– Hospitals
– Long-term care facilities
– Hospice
– Private practices
– Consultant practices
– Academic settings
How You Can Become A Holistic Nurse With The Nurse Coach Collective
The American Nurses Association has fully recognized holistic nursing as a nursing specialty. They have done so as a specialty that has a defined scope with basic standards attached. The primary standards of holistic nursing include providing transparency to patients and helping them heal.
If you are aiming to become a holistic nurse, you will want to consider signing up with The Nurse Coach Collective. We offer a Transformative Nurse Coach Certificate Program where a candidate will be tasked with completing the course and earning certification for both nurse coaching and holistic nursing.
You can count on becoming board certified as recognized by the American Holistic Nursing Credentialing Corporation. They have approved the training for those looking to get into the specialty.
What Kind Of Requirements Do You Have To Meet To Get Into It?
To become a board-certified holistic nurse, you will need to have:
– A Registered Nursing license that is current and unrestricted.
– A total of 48 CNE hours in holistic nursing theory, research, practice, or other related subjects.
– A full 1-year or 2,000 hours of practice in holistic nursing.
We are here to help. The Nurse Coach Collective is a professional school that you can attend to get board certified to become a holistic nurse. You will get access to all of the material, resources, and training needed to learn how to become an effective holistic nurse. The training centers in on assisting candidates fully qualify to become effective nursing providers for holistic nursing.
