Living a healthy, balanced life is simple in theory, but in reality, it’s much more complex. As a registered nurse, you’ve probably recommended hundreds of basic guidelines on diet, exercise, and sleep, but rarely are they followed.
One answer—Because life happens. Your patients don’t deliberately decide to skip exercise, eat poorly, or stay stressed. Sometimes, they just can’t take care of themselves as they should. Families, emergencies, careers, and diseases can all get in the way.
It can definitely be frustrating, getting in the way of providing and coordinating patient care. That’s why we bring forth health and wellness coaching to make your endeavors much easier. Health and wellness coaching transcends beyond the nursing practice; beyond medications to patients, beyond monitoring for reactions, and beyond drug administration and advice.
Here is all you need to know about becoming a nurse health coach. Let’s start by looking at health and wellness coaching:
Becoming a Nurse Health Coach [Beyond Nursing Practice]
What is Heath and Wellness Coaching?
According to WHO, “Health” is a condition of whole mental, bodily, and social well-being. It indicates that a person is doing well overall, rather than just being free of illness or infirmity. On the other hand, “wellness” describes the condition of leading a healthy lifestyle; a positive way of life.
So what is health and wellness coaching? It is a patient-centered approach where patients, in the context of a personal relationship with a coach, use self-discovery or active learning processes to work toward their well-being goals. It includes self-monitoring behaviors to increase accountability.
The 5 Must-Haves of a Health and Wellness Coaching Model
• Patient-centered
• Encourages the process of self-discovery
• Allows clients/patients to choose their own self-determined goals related to health and wellness
• Patients are accountable
• Clearly defined skills, expertise, and knowledge for sustainable change
What Does a Health and Wellness Coach Do?
Patients attain their health and wellness goals with the help of a coach, who is a healthcare practitioner with training in behavior change theory, motivational skills, and communication strategies. Coaches help patients acquire the skills they need to make lasting changes in their lives for better health and wellbeing.
In simple words, a health and wellness coach works one-on-one with people who want to make significant changes that touch every aspect of their well-being. These experts often come from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds, including nursing, nutrition, public health, fitness, and many more.
They apply ideas from the domains of psychology, behavior modification, and life coaching to assist their clients in overcoming challenges and upholding good behaviors for the rest of their lives. Some reasons why people need health and wellness coaches are:
• Self-care
• Weight loss
• Achieving better work-life balance
• Rehabilitation from addiction
• Quitting smoking
• Reducing Stress
• Eating a healthier diet
• Enhancing life satisfaction
• Practicing a positive mindset
• Improving interpersonal relationships
How Coaching Works:
Naturally, the aforementioned problems overlap. When a health and wellness coach comes into the picture, they take into account the factors that prevent their client from thriving physically, mentally, and emotionally. They then come up with strategies that provide them with the support and resources they need to achieve their wellness goals.
They improve the patient’s health, vitality, and overall well-being by increasing behaviors that improve health and prevent diseases. These include sleep management, nutrition, stress management, fitness, weight loss, mind-body, and positive psychological interventions. With such coaching, you empower patients to expand their capacity for sustainable lifestyle changes.
Transformative Nurse Coaching: Nurses Are Leading the Way.
No one in the world is better suited to work as an RN health coach than you. Since time immemorial, nursing has been a profession that entails providing people with competent and compassionate care. Nursing was also the first profession to ever produce a Board Certification in coaching approaches.
We, therefore, believe that nobody beats nurses when it comes to health and wellness coaching. That’s why our focus is on you. We equip you with the skills you need to attain your goals in meeting the diverse and often complex needs of patients.
As a nurse coach, you are a fully competent registered nurse, and as the cherry on top of the cake, have all the skills of a health and wellness coach. You are unstoppable! You can help your patients attain what they might not have attained with the skills of a basic RN.
Registered Nurse Health Coach Is The Future
How can we bridge the gap between medicine and healing—the exact missing piece in our healthcare system?—Nurse coaches. Being a Nurse health coach involves patient/coach collaboration to accomplish health and wellness goals through a sequence of intentional, organized, and inspirational activities.
Nurse coaches are masters of their craft. They drive results. They are the easiest solution to healing and positive lifestyle choices, which are vital to the overall health of a society.
Ready to transform your career and rekindle your passion? Talk to us. At The Nurse Coach Collective, we have programs created exclusively by nurses, for nurses. Let’s transform health and wellness for the sake of our future generations!
To Learn More about becoming a certified Nurse Coach visit The Nurse Coach Collective.