Fellow nurses, is any of you a Life Coach or Health Coach. If so where and how did you get certified. Also, are you getting clients. My intention is to ultimately use my nursing knowledge, experience and skill as a life coach in the next couple of years. Yiggs

We are All life/health coaches via our job descriptions. We just don't use that knowledge independent of our "jobs" to create financial independence. Congrats to you for going in that direction. There are several online coach programs that offer certification as a life coach. Your RN degree gives you an expert status as a health coach. To strength your credibility, you may want to consider taking a few online courses in certain areas such as nutrition if that will be your angle. You have to figure out what your niche will be and take it from there.

I agree with passionflower.

I think that you don't have to limit yourself to your local area This can be done as tele-health also wher you can have tele health equipment such as a scale and BP monitor that downloads information to you. Speak to the clients via phone and find out what they're doing right and wrong and guiding them in the right direction. The scale is an accountability tool and so are the phone calls and that is exactly what they are paying for--for you to hold them accountable, keep them on track, encourage and reach their goals. This could be a big business.

Yes, I'm a health coach. I got my education at Duke Integrative Medicine. It is the real deal, a life-changing experience. I disagree that we already do coaching as a part of our job descriptions. If you think that then you don't understand coaching. Education and coaching are totally different things. I had no idea of how much difference there was until I got into the program at Duke.

I'm still working in the hospital while trying to get my coaching practice establised.

Cosmicmama, how long have you been practicing. How long was the course and was it very expensive. It's an area of interest for me. Do you find building a clientele easy. Yiggs

I just finished the course in July. The field is up-and-coming, it's going to take some enterpreneurial spirit to build a clientele. If you're just looking for a job, though, lots of insurance companies are hiring nurse health coaches, Humana is one. There's a ton of information about the program at http://dukeintegrativehealthcoach.org. It's pretty expensive, but it's well worth it. There are lots of so-called health coaching programs online for cheaper, and I think most of them are a waste of money.

Hello

I think you may have misunderstood what I meant when I stated that we as nurses are already coaches. I didn't mean that literally. That we could hang up a coach sign tomorrow and start a practice. I know it takes much more than that. What I meant is that we don't value our skills as nurses as effectively as we could. Much of what a nurse does could expand in different directions. Health coaches work with clients to get them to an optimal level of health. I'm sorry but isn't that what nurses do as well? It goes without saying that we would need further training but I don't think enough nurses give themselves enough credit for the skills we already possess.

I work in OB and am trying to perfect my skills and update my credentials in the hopes of adding childbirth educator to my resume, not long ago I saw a show with someone running a million dollar business teaching about childbirth and life thereafter and this person WAS NOT even a nurse! Meanwhile I have had co-workers limit themselves to this role only within the hospital and never consider doing it themselves. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone but I just think nurses don't realize their values.

If your are developing a practice as a health coach congratulations, you are definitely part of the future I hope to see a lot of nurses head toward.

wow...think of the possibilities! This will open-up tremendous opportunity for nurses across disciplines. I imagine that this is a private pay type business targeting clients who can afford the coaching - or are there any models for reimbursement either now or being considered (outside of entities like Humana)? How are BON viewing the practice? Best wishes to Yiggs & cosmicmama on this intriguing journey:)!

I Fully Agree I am a retired RN BSN with over 20 years of clinical experience float pool. Another words. Other than my 2 years Bariatic /Ned surg I put in in the beginning. From graduation to retirement my skills in ALL fields were kept sharp and shiny. I covered any shift any department. Even very specialized departments like endoscopy, post op recovery, ICU , PT , Psych you get the idea. With all of that. You are the life coach, you are the liscenced health coach. You have to know what to teach related to the diagnosis at discharge that patient is going to have the best most promising post life. POSSIBLE. And every thing including family, home environment, recent losses, $ issues all have to be considered. We Are already not certified but liscenced life coaches. And when we retire from nursing that liscence weather we leave because we are disabled, or retired or just plain fed up with the garbage the administration puts our liscence at risk for so they can squeeze one more dime out. WE earned our liscence that should be recognized in any and all States. To practice Life and Health Coach. Thank you for listening to my tangent. Cynthia Seamen RN BSN