7 Benefits of Getting a Nurse Coach Certification

As a nurse, you know the feeling all too well: You get off a long shift at the hospital, bleary-eyed and nerves shot, feeling overworked and overwhelmed. You’re frustrated by the quick, connectionless moments you spent with your patients that day — not to mention the preventable illnesses you know their insurance companies are charging sky-high rates to treat. 

In these moments, you might feel like saying goodbye to nursing. And yet, while you may be frustrated with your job, you know in your heart that you still love being a nurse. Nursing is a core part of who you are. Helping others and promoting health and wellness is what you’re meant to do.

We get that. We’ve been there, too. So what can you do?

Through Nurse Coaching, we’ve managed to marry our medical training and experience with actionable health coaching. The result? Healthy patients we REALLY get to connect with in a meaningful way and a better quality of life for us, too!

Not convinced yet? Here are just seven of the many reasons why you’ll want to become a Nurse Coach.

 

You Can Be Your Own Boss

One of our favorite things about Nurse Coaching was the autonomy we gained through this innovative nursing practice. You can work as an independent contractor, providing third-party Nurse Coach services for hospitals, organizations, wellness companies, integrative and functional medicine offices, and insurance agencies. Or you can even build your own practice! 

Life as a thriving, independent Nurse Coach is a life full of possibilities. You’ll have more control over your hours, rates, and even the patients you choose to take on. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, trust us, it’s totally possible. We know because we’ve done it  – along with thousands of nurses across the country who are already diving into this work.

Of course, we must admit that building a thriving coaching practice is no small feat. There’s a lot you need to learn , such as how to run a business, how to effectively coach your patients, and how to integrate the lifestyle medicines you advocate for in your own life. But while there may be a learning curve,  we’ve seen countless nurses succeed, basking in the benefits of a flexible schedule and work-life balance that’s on their own terms. 

There is nothing better than waking up in the morning and seeing that you are doing a job that fulfills your soul AND your schedule is what YOU say it is.

 

You Can Practice Your Way

We nurses get into this profession because we want to help others. Our compassion is our calling, and it keeps us going even when today’s healthcare system leaves us feeling stifled and frustrated. 

Because let’s face it, the current system is pretty dang stifling. 

As a nurse, much of our working day is dictated by the current healthcare system. The hospital controls just about everything we do: what we wear, what we say, and what we write. We don’t have the chance to form an authentic connection with our patients, and even if we could, our overpacked schedules make it practically impossible.

Wouldn’t you rather have your say? Shouldn’t healthcare be about the patient’s needs, not the hospital’s or Big Pharma’s?

Nurse Coaching gives you the chance to break away from the pack and help your patients find healing your way. No more checklists. No more protocols. You can use your medical training and all the evidence-based tools at your disposal to create a practice that perfectly suits each of your unique clients.

You can even explore and integrate different modalities into your practice: Dancing. Tai-Chi. Mindfulness. Essential oils. All the things that the current model of care dismisses as “silly, woo-woo, and alternative” can become the core of your Coaching practice (and your patients will thank you for it). Nurse Coaching creates space for all of those holistic, evidence-based modalities that many other areas of modern medicine don’t allow.

 

You’ll Make Valuable Connections with Your Patients

Don’t you find it frustrating that you often spend mere minutes with your patients, checking their vitals and recording their data before moving on to the next room? Your patient isn’t just a doll you can poke and prod; they are a person — and oftentimes, they’re a person who is concerned about their current health and well-being. All your patients need more than just someone who will make sure they have enough fluids and the right medication. They need someone who will take the time to talk to find out who they truly are and who can help them transform their health into something they can celebrate for years to come.

Becoming a Nurse Coach will allow you exactly that. 

Nurse Coaching isn’t just about teaching your clients to meditate or move their bodies. It’s also about uncovering their deepest vulnerabilities, hopes, and dreams. Everyone has specific health and wellness goals that can vary from climbing Mount Everest to simply getting through the week with less stress. As a Nurse Coach, you get to connect with your patients on a deeper, more powerful level than you can in a hospital or clinic, and you’ll have the chance to help them make those wishes come true. And best of all, because being a Nurse Coach is inter-developmental, both Coach and client will grow from this world-changing relationship.

 

You’ll Watch Your Patients Make Lasting, Inspiring Changes 

Nurse Coaching is all about helping your patients set and achieve their health goals in a lasting and sustainable way. This isn’t a band-aid solution; it’s a transformative change, right down to the soul. This is why so many of our clients say that working with a Nurse Coach is a truly life-changing experience.

One thing we nurses sometimes forget is that we’re not the only ones who feel “trapped” by the current model of care. Our patients are right there with us, wondering why they always need a new prescription or why they keep paying high medical bills, and yet they never seem to be getting better. 

Nurse Coaches can give these frustrated patients the answers they are looking for because we are highly trained, emotionally intelligent healers, full of compassion, wisdom, and an unwavering commitment to care for ourselves and our patients. 

As a Nurse Coach, you have the opportunity to open up a world of possibilities to your clients. You can shake the foundations of what they “know” about health and help them discover a completely new life that’s filled with love, well-being, and truth.

But remember: Nurse Coaching isn’t about “fixing” your patients. That’s not your job. In fact, it wouldn’t really be possible. True wellness only occurs when the patient is willing to take action for themselves. Your job is to empower your patients and give them the tools and guidance that will inspire them to take action and improve their health for good. The wisdom you impart during your coaching could last a lifetime, and you never have to worry about patient satisfaction scores again.

 

Burnout Becomes a Thing of the Past

There’s a key phrase we addressed above about an unwavering commitment to care for ourselves and our patients.

If that doesn’t get you jumping for joy, read it again.

Are you jumping now? You should be!

We nurses are “givers.” We give our time and energy to our patients. We risk our own health to care for others. And sadly, too many of us give so much of ourselves that we let our own well-being fall by the wayside. 

It’s no secret that today’s nurses are shamefully abused in the current system. We amble, sleep-deprived, through 12- to 16-hour shifts. We eat at our desks while we chart. We buckle under an ever-growing patient load with fewer and fewer resources and sacrifice valuable time with our family members and friends in service of an industry that doesn’t seem to want to thank us. 

But here’s the reality: When we’re going through life with a half-empty cup, we will never be able to give as much to others. 

However, Nurse Coaching gives you the grace and freedom to prioritize your own needs. This practice will help you fill your own cup, so you can be fully present in everything that you do. And trust us, people will notice the difference. You’ll look better, feel happier, and have more focus and energy than you have in years. Nurse Coaching reminds you that you’re more than just a nurse, and once you learn to embrace self-care, you can reach out and help others from a place of abundance.

What does all this add up to?

No. More. Burnout. And if you ask us, that is reason enough to start Nurse Coaching as soon as possible.

 

Nurse Coaching is in High Demand

How many times have you heard someone say this about your career: “You can use your advanced toolkit in pretty much any setting you want”? It’s one of the biggest selling points for prospective nurses — the endless freedom you’ll have to jump from specialty to specialty and even to create your own positions.

While it is true that nursing can yield you a variety of job opportunities throughout the medical field, it’s also true that your options exponentially increase as a Nurse Coach.

In Nurse Coaching, you have all the freedom of the nursing world, plus all the freedom of the coaching world. It’s a total win-win for your career and your overall well-being.

What’s more, today’s patients are hungry for the work Nurse Coaches do: 38% of adults and 12% of children are now using complementary and alternative medicine in the United States. People are sick of the current model of care, and YOU can show them the path to true wellness.

The high demand for Nurse Coaches today also means that you have the freedom to boost your financial earnings. As an example, let us tell you a quick story:

When Heather and I signed our first clients, I did some quick math to see how our hourly rate had changed in our new position. Hourly, our rate went up 1,000%. 

We couldn’t believe it either. Honestly, we thought the math was wrong! We even consulted an accountant friend to check our work, and he confirmed it: 1,000%. 

How could we increase our earnings that much with just a few new clients? The answer was simple: Our clients could see the massive value in our work. They recognized that they would really benefit from our coaching, and so they invested heavily in themselves.

That’s the thing that our patients see (and the thing that you’ll come to understand as a Nurse Coach): Investing in our services is an investment in their own health. We aren’t just managing symptoms or solving a problem “for now.” We’re taking a different approach, supporting our patients and clients and prioritizing their health now. 

When you have your own practice as a Nurse Coach, you can set your rates and charge your clients based on what you know your services are worth. The clients who understand your value — a.k.a. the clients who will get the greatest benefit from your coaching — will be happy to invest in the powerful and lasting results you can give them. Nurse Coaching can open up new financial opportunities for you, giving you the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest and help others do the same.

 

You’ll be a Part of the Shift from Illness to Wellness

In the United States, we spend more money annually on healthcare than any other developed nation. Yet, the U.S. healthcare system is 50 out of 55 in terms of efficiency.

Our nation is filled with people who are chronically sick and overweight, who are stuck in a cycle of illness, pill-pushing, and perceived “wellness” that is actually just a band-aid. This cycle — and this system — is unsustainable, and something needs to change before it all comes crashing down. 

That’s where Nurse Coaches come in. Our intuitive practice treats the soul, not the symptom, and it can help reverse all the physical and emotional muck that so many patients find themselves struggling through. 

The CDC states that 85% of physical ailments have, at least in part, an emotional cause. This is hardly a surprise; traditional medicine has long shown us that everything is indelibly interconnected. And yet, the Western healthcare model fails to address much of the emotional elements of “healing.” Things like connection, relationship building, love, truth, and compassion are often ignored or written off as “woo-woo” modalities, when in fact, they may be the key to finding true and lasting wellness.

As a Nurse Coach, you will help people grow their capacity for wellness in ways that get to the root of their health issues and make a real, sustainable change.

Our medical system is broken. But luckily, nurses are the ones who can fix it. And we Nurse Coaches are already doing it.

As nurses, we belong to the world’s most trusted profession. No other organization or profession even comes close to us. And even now, as we venture into uncharted territory in the field of Nurse Coaching, we have single-handedly legitimized the coaching field in an unprecedented manner (thanks to some badass nursing theorists who created the Nurse Coach certification)! 

Now, people seeking genuine, lasting wellness don’t need to turn to one of the thousands of coaches out there who took a weekend course in nutrition and are handing out very dangerous misinformation. As a Nurse Coach, you work at the intersection of science and healing, ending the cycle of disease and helping your clients live better lives than they ever thought possible.

And really, isn’t that what you’ve always wanted to do with your career?

Become a Nurse Coach Today

As nurses, we love to learn new skills. This is just another reason why becoming a Nurse Coach is so awesome. During your training, you get the opportunity to learn new (or actually, centuries-old) forms of healing as well as heart-centered selling, business skills, and web savviness. 

Best of all, you’ll get to see how Nurse Coaching works firsthand, engaging in some of the most transformative conversations of your life and learning more about yourself. Everything you learn during your Nurse Coach training goes into your arsenal, giving you the ability to fight illness in a totally different way.

Through our Transformative Nurse Coach Certificate program, you will gain the insights and skills needed to treat your patients with intuition, compassion, and honesty. We’ll help you learn how to practice holistically, treat the person instead of the symptom, and give your patients actionable, lasting solutions that will leave them healthier and happier than ever. 

Over seven months, you’ll learn to embrace lifestyle medicine, practice self-care, and make connections with some of the most inspiring fellow nurses you’ve ever met. And when it’s all done, you’ll have earned 120 contact hours and become a board-certified Nurse Coach.   

If you are frustrated with the current state of nursing, you’re not alone. It can be so easy to lose track of why we are in this profession. But you’re capable of so much more than that, and you deserve to feel the love and passion you once had for your career. 

Nurse Coaching can bring back that spark.

As a Nurse Coach, you have the opportunity to instigate real change and be at the forefront of a healthcare revolution. Your capacity for growth and success is only limited by your imagination, and you’ve got an incredible community that has your back.

Want to learn more? Sign up for our free training today and see exactly what makes Nurse Coaching so special and why we’re sure it’s the future of nursing.