There are many paths a Nurse Coaching session can take when diving authentically into holding space with listening and powerful, well paced questions. When Nurse Coaches step into a place of intention, calm, curiosity and intuition, they allow clients to open the doors to their own innate answers and magic happens.
This blog is a case study of how one Nurse Coach used her intuition, skill, professionalism and art to walk alongside her client to co-create a safe, thorough and actionable plan towards health and wholeness.
AP (initials changed for anonymity) had been learning to live with a new diagnosis of oral allergy syndrome.
What is Most Important to Tell Me Now?
When I asked, “What is most important to tell me right now?” AP explained that her doctor had exclaimed it was, “so great you have lost so much weight. You are ‘getting getting healthy’”, but explained to me that she was saddened because she felt he hadn’t listened to her whole story.
AP wasn’t eating because she was in fear of eating foods that would cause flare ups. She had lost a large amount of weight because she had stopped eating almost everything out of fear!
I Listened carefully to her story
I listened carefully to her story, collecting details and information to truly understand the fullness of her situation. Here are some brief data points to consider…
AP had her first allergic reaction 5 years prior, with swollen lips after eating fresh celery. She stayed away from that vegetable and her reaction subsided.
Recently, she had seen an allergist, as her symptoms had been returning and with varied vegetables and fruits. She’d been receiving allergy shots which had caused her asthma to exacerbate. She decided to stop the shots, and was ‘staying away from anything ‘green’ and most vegetables, and began looking for more alternative and self-healing ways to manage her present situation and life. She found me and Nurse health coaching in her research, telling me she had tried so many things, but no one was really listening to her.
After listening to her story, my mind and human-ness and Nursing experience had me jumping to how I could fix AP with all my experience and knowledge.
A Nurse Coach Does Not Fix
However, a Nurse Coach does not fix. Instead, Nurse Coaches are partners, conduits to how a client can imagine fixing herself, with her own inner wisdom from living in her life day to day. In this scenario, the normal, demanding healthcare treatment plan will not work as effectively as a co-partnership like health and wellness Nurse Coaching.
How Did We Call on AP’s Inner Wisdom?
So, how did we call on AP’s inner wisdom to guide her to creating her own action plan? We did an awareness practice called, “What am I hoping for?”
This is about a three to five-minute meditation which asks one to dive into one’s inner wisdom, to understand what lies within in response to the question, ‘what am I hoping for’. In this case, the question was, “in your present health needs, what am I hoping for?” Read more about the awareness practice, “What am I hoping for?” here.
People See the Inspiration, Answers and Ideas from Within Their Soul
In my experience with this, ‘what am I hoping for’ awareness practice, people see inspiration, answers and ideas from within their soul. It offers an opportunity to connect deeply to the messages that lie below the surface of our habits and quick reactions. And many times, it opens up possibilities, visions, images, and actions the client wasn’t aware of.
This isn’t the cross your fingers kind of hope, this is the hope that resides deep within the heart and soul of a being.
After the “what am I hoping for” awareness practice, AP stated, “I am hopeful to enjoy a full meal with my daughter without worrying she would see me go into anaphylactic shock from eating the wrong food.” AP went on to explain, that she had discovered she was feeling a deep sadness and like a hostage from the fear of food.
I asked what she would like to see happen from discovering this new hope. She said, “I’d like to develop a plan to help me try foods I am scared of, so I can move beyond fear.”
Now that is a strong hope-filled intention, straight from her heart!
I am Always Struck by the Honesty of Hope
Each time I am lucky enough to partner with clients, I am always struck by the honesty of hope. Hope does not discriminate or deny feelings of grief, sadness or anger or fear. Hope helps re-frame downhearted feelings and sensations into actions and intentions that are more manageable, allowing us to connect to a deeper sensation of control and purpose.
AP Developed Her Own Action Plan
After partnering together for less than 45 minutes AP developed her own thorough Action Plan for adding foods slowly back into her diet.
AP’s detailed, thoughtful and safe Action Plan included;
1. She would use her allergy testing results to determine which food groups were least reactive, and begin with one vegetable in that group.
2. AP would pick a day at work free from important meetings after lunch- just in case she had to be hospitalized.
3. In her research AP had learned it is best to eat ‘risky’ foods cooked and to avoid eating them raw, so AP would cook the chosen vegetable without any seasonings.
4. AP would ask her colleague at work if she would help her introduce this food at lunch with her, as she was a Registered Nurse and AP trusted her. If her colleague was ‘in’, AP planned to educate her colleague on her condition, list out her expectations and the symptoms to watch for.
5. AP would make sure her colleague knew how to use her epi-pen.
6. AP would have her epi-pen close at hand before she ate.
7. AP would eat only a few bites of the cooked vegetable and really listen to her body and how it felt. She would express to her colleague how she was feeling and not keep sensations hidden.
8. AP would also explain the plan with her significant other so he understood when, why and where this introduction would happen, so he wasn’t surprised at any outcome.
9. AP planned to begin the preparations on the following Monday and introduce her first food the following week.
Nurse Coaching is an Honest, Professional and Authentic Option
Nurse Coaching is an honest, professional and authentic option for clients (and Nurses) who want to take a different approach from the traditional disease- oriented healthcare model.
AP’s detailed, thorough and safe plan is tailored to her- for her and by her! There is no way I could have known (or even imagined) all the details she did! I simply stepped out of her way, moved alongside her to support her with the safety to explore, while listening deeply and offering powerful Nurse Coaching questions.
It took time and effort to get to her personalized action plan, but all of it was worth it, for AP was able to add her chosen first food back into her life and now had a plan to continue taking steps forward with her-designed safety plan in place. With her plan, she could proceed forward without living in the fear that had once paralyzed her.
It’s Time to Shift Healthcare
It’s time to shift healthcare by allowing and encouraging you, the healthcare consumer to drive your own care for prevention, instead of being told how you should proceed in your unique life.
You can find a Nurse Coach in your community, in private practice, community centers, in primary care clinics, as doulas, in end-of-life care and hospice, in schools, in small (and big) business wellness centers, at the hospital bedside and more!
Or, read another blog called, What to Expect from a Nurse Coach to learn more.
If you are a Nurse interested in Nurse Coaching certification programs, check out the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy.
NICOLE VIENNEAU, MSN, RN, NC-BC
~Health Protection Expert & ‘Head’ Motivator!
Nicole knows how to inspire you with habits and behaviors that protect your health and wholeness. She understands the science to support you and makes learning and action fun! Nicole’s Memere (grandma in French) lived with dementia after 13 strokes slowly stole her fire, her wit and her life. Through Memere, Nicole learned the gift of humor and creative ways of communicating using unsaid words and messages, and she helps you turn knowledge into action! Nicole uses these skills to create purpose, vitality and health with the Build Your Health System at Blue Monarch Health, PLLC
Nicole achieved a Master’s in Nursing Science from the University of Arizona, and a board certification in Integrative Nurse Coaching from the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation, and is Senior Faculty with the Integrative Nurse Coach Academy. She is a personal trainer, yoga teacher and group fitness instructor and enjoys healing in nature while hiking the Pacific Northwest trails with her husband or lounging in the sun with her cat babies. Email Nicole
The contents of this website/blog are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This website/blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.