Functional Medicine & Nurse Coaching: Redefining Holistic Nursing Practice
- Brigitte Sager
- Jul 27, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Originally published July 26, 2022 and updated November 8, 2025 by Dr. Brigitte Sager, DNP, IFMCP — Founder & CEO of the Institute for Functional Nursing (IFN).
When I first wrote about the partnership between functional medicine and nurse coaching, I was exploring how these two disciplines could come together to create more meaningful patient care. At the time, I was teaching a short course in functional medicine for nursing, and I was helping nurses begin to integrate root-cause thinking into their practice. Since then, this work has evolved far beyond what I imagined — culminating in the creation of the Functional Nursing Program™ at the Institute for Functional Nursing, where we’ve built an entirely new standard for how nurses and nurse practitioners apply functional medicine in practice.
This is the story of how I got here — and why I believe the future of nursing lies at the intersection of education, empowerment, and root-cause care.
The Evolution of a Functional Nurse
I became a nurse 16 years ago. Like many of us who are deeply dedicated to the profession, I started out as an associate’s degree-trained RN, but soon returned for my bachelor’s degree (BSN), followed by a master’s in nursing (MSN) as a family nurse practitioner (FNP), and eventually my doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). Learning has always been a cornerstone of who I am — and so has teaching.
At every level of nursing education, we’re taught that our role as educators is fundamental. Beyond providing compassionate care, our highest responsibility is to empower patients with knowledge so they can take an active role in their health. But in traditional healthcare systems, that’s easier said than done.
The Moment I Realized Something Had to Change
Working in hospitals and primary care, I found myself trapped in rapid fire appointment slots and endless quality metrics that had little to do with actual healing. I had become what I call a “manager of disease,” not a facilitator of health. Like so many nurses, I was burned out, frustrated, and ready to find a better way.
That search led me to nurse coaching — where I first learned the art of listening rather than simply teaching. It was a paradigm shift. I quickly realized that while education is vital, transformation only happens when we help patients uncover their why — their own motivation for change.
But something was missing, and I have heard this same story time and again from my students.
Functional Medicine: Asking ‘Why’ at the Biological Level
Around the same time, I discovered functional medicine, which also centers on asking why — but from a physiological and systems-based perspective. Instead of focusing on symptom management, functional medicine looks upstream to find the root causes of imbalance — from nutrition and lifestyle to stress, inflammation, and environmental exposures.
As I studied, I realized something powerful: nurses already understand functional medicine at its foundation. Our training emphasizes the body as an interconnected system, the influence of environment and emotion on health, and the role of education in promoting healing. Functional medicine simply gives us the “how” — the clinical tools to connect those dots.
Bringing Functional Medicine and Nurse Coaching Together: The Birth of Functional Nursing
When I began integrating functional medicine and nurse coaching in my own practice, everything changed. My sessions became longer, more collaborative, and far more impactful. Patients weren’t just learning about nutrition, stress, or hormones — they were transforming their lives.
Functional medicine gave them the roadmap, and coaching gave me skills to help support them.
Over time, it became clear that these two frameworks — when combined — represent the future of nursing. This is what ultimately inspired me to create the Functional Nursing Program™ at IFN: a fully integrated model that merges functional medicine, behavior change, patient-centered care, and holistic nursing into one cohesive professional identity.
What We Teach Now at IFN
Today, in the Functional Nursing Program™, nurses and nurse practitioners learn the same powerful combination that changed my career — but with even greater depth and clarity. Through our IFM-aligned curriculum, students gain clinical proficiency in root-cause care and the advanced communication, motivation, and behavior-change techniques needed to help them make meaningful change.
We’ve evolved the concept into something broader, evidence-based, and nursing-led — a framework we call Functional Nursing.
In this model, nurses learn how to:
Use functional assessment tools to identify underlying patterns of imbalance.
Apply motivational and behavior-change techniques to help patients implement sustainable health strategies.
Work confidently within their nursing scope of practice to deliver education-based care that drives real outcomes.
Lead patients through transformation — not just treatment.
Where We’re Headed
The need for this type of care has never been stronger — but at IFN, we’re taking it one step further. Functional Nursing isn’t just about merging two disciplines. It’s about redefining what’s possible in nursing altogether.
Our graduates aren’t just supporting patients — they’re transforming systems. They’re opening independent practices, leading wellness initiatives, and demonstrating how nurses can deliver exceptional, evidence-based care that’s compassionate, empowering, and deeply human.
Beyond the program itself, these concepts come alive inside our Functional Nursing Membership™ community.
Each month, we host four live meetups that dive deeper into communication, motivational strategies, and real-world scenarios drawn from our faculty and members’ practices. Together, we explore how to apply these techniques with confidence- whether you’re guiding a patient through dietary changes, supporting stress resilience, or helping them rediscover purpose and self-efficacy.
It’s in these conversations that functional nursing truly becomes second nature. Members develop the art of guiding patients toward their why while staying firmly grounded in nursing scope and functional medicine principles.
This is what nursing was always meant to be.
And this is the movement we’re leading — one nurse, one patient, and one root cause at a time.
Join the Movement
Founded by the nurse that brought functional medicine to nursing, the Functional Nursing Program™ is the first and only IFM-aligned educational pathway created by nurses, for nurses — combining functional medicine, motivational science, and the art of nursing in one comprehensive curriculum. And she's not alone, because the program is developed and led by an exceptional team of graduate-level, IFM-certified nursing professionals who are redefining what’s possible in nursing education- bringing decades of clinical expertise, mentorship, and heart to every module.
