Holistic nursing

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · 1981 · United States

What it is

Holistic nursing is a way of practising nursing rather than a set of therapies. AHNA describes the holistic nurse as taking a mind-body-spirit-emotion approach to traditional nursing. An early AHNA definition gives its goal as healing the whole person from birth to death. AHNCC describes care of…

Format

• There is no set course of sessions. Holistic nursing follows the nursing process, renamed the "holistic caring process". It applies in any setting, for whatever length the nursing episode lasts. In the AHNA/ANA standards the phases are as follows:
• This runs inside ordinary psychotherapy sessions and does not add sessions of its own.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• 5D Prescriptive authority and treatment, for advanced practice nurses within their licence
• Version followed: the United States model published by the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) with the American Nurses Association (ANA), Holistic Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice (3rd ed., 2019; structure as set out in the 2nd ed., 2013), and certification as published by the American Holistic Nurses Credentialing Corporation (AHNCC) in 2026. The Canadian Holistic Nurses Association (CHNA) Holistic…
• Holistic nursing is a nursing specialty carried out by licensed nurses. It is not a psychotherapy method. A psychotherapist does not practise it, sell it, prescribe it or recommend it. Sections 1–3 describe holistic nursing as its own organisations publish it. Section 4 is the psychotherapist's own work when a client receives care from a holistic nurse, or uses modalities a holistic nurse has offered.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Standards of professional performance (7–16 in the 2nd ed.) cover ethics, education, evidence-based practice and research, quality, communication, leadership, collaboration, professional practice evaluation, resource utilisation and environmental health. The 3rd edition has 17 standards in total.…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• missed oncology appointments family splits guilt regret
• rising frequency of visits new "sensitivities" narrowing of daily life
• fear of retaliation, and loyalty to the practitioner. Go at the client's pace unless there is a safeguarding duty.
• pressure from the client to endorse or condemn the practitioner your own enthusiasm or scepticism steering the client
• urgency all-or-nothing framing ("natural" versus "toxic") decisions made to please someone a client who wants you to decide for them

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.