Rethinking Protocols in Functional Medicine in Nursing Practice: Alternative Approaches That Work
- Brigitte Sager
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
When I Started Learning Functional Medicine, I Was Desperate for Protocols
When I was first diving into the world of functional medicine, I did what a lot of us do. I looked for protocols in the courses I took. I wanted something structured. Something safe. A set of steps I could follow with confidence and consistency. Something that would work for every patient.
I was a primary care provider at the time, and I’d see people struggling with fatigue, gut issues, or hormonal imbalances and immediately think, What’s the functional medicine protocol for that? I even bought books and courses that promised exactly that—“plug-and-play” plans that claimed to work for everyone. But the more I learned, the more I realized that trying to use a protocol in the functional space just doesn't make sense. It might feel comforting at first to have a checklist to follow… but it almost always falls short.
Functional Nursing Isn’t About “One Size Fits All”
I can’t count how many times students in my programs have asked, “Do you have a protocol for ___?” And I get it. We’re trained in nursing to follow care plans, treatment orders, and checklists. That system works beautifully in acute care where patients often do follow predictable patterns. But functional nursing? It's a different world.
Why? Because we’re not treating a diagnosis. We’re investigating the why behind it, adn that is going to be different for each person.
Someone with fatigue might have nutrient deficiencies, gut inflammation, blood sugar instability, trauma history, or mitochondrial dysfunction. A one-size-fits-all approach misses the point. You might start in a similar place with foundational tools (we’ll explore that next), but where you go depends entirely on what the patient’s story, labs, lifestyle, and timeline reveal.
Foundational First, Then Individualized
Now, don’t get me wrong—there are patterns. And as nurses trained in functional medicine, we do have frameworks we lean on. We might:
Optimize digestion and nutrient absorption
Address blood sugar regulation
Focus on sleep, stress, and inflammation
Replete common deficiencies (like magnesium or B vitamins)
Use food-as-medicine to lower the body’s inflammatory load
But these are foundational starting points, not rigid protocols. They help us support the body while we investigate root causes and respond to each patient’s unique biochemistry, environment, and lived experience.
What we do use instead of rigid protocols is a clinical framework grounded in patterns, probabilities, and personalization. For example, if someone presents with rheumatoid arthritis, we already know there are common areas worth exploring such as immune dysregulation, gut permeability, inflammatory triggers, nutrient deficiencies, blood sugar stability, and stress physiology. There are foundational considerations many functional nurses will assess and often support, and yes, there are supplements that are frequently helpful in this population. But that does not mean every patient with RA gets the same food plan, the same labs, or the same supplement stack. One person’s root cause might be gluten sensitivity and gut inflammation. Another’s might be trauma, chronic stress, or poor detox capacity. Functional nursing is about understanding why those considerations matter and then applying them thoughtfully, safely, and within nursing scope to the individual sitting in front of you.
The Problem With “Functional Medicine Protocols”
Here’s why the idea of protocols in this space often backfires:
It ignores individuality. Functional medicine is about personalized care. Protocols are inherently impersonal.
It leads to supplement overload. Many protocols just mean a giant list of products and little critical thinking.
It creates dependency. Patients become reliant on providers for the “next protocol” instead of building self-awareness and ownership of their health.
It prevents clinical growth. Nurses stop challenging themselves to change how they think and just reach for the next pre-made plan.
I always tell my students: functional nursing is a practice of curiosity and personalization. We ask better questions. We look upstream. We trust our nursing process and blend it with the root-cause lens.
So What Do We Use in Functional Nursing?
Instead of fixed protocols, we use:
Timelines and Matrix Mapping (if you're using the IFM framework)
Pattern recognition and clinical reasoning
Patient partnership and shared decision-making
Foundational lifestyle support individualized to each person’s needs
Ongoing reassessment to course-correct as healing evolves
This approach doesn’t just get better results. It reconnects us to why we became nurses in the first place. It’s deeply clinical, but also intuitive, compassionate, and rooted in whole-person care.
If You’ve Been Searching for “The Protocol,” You’re Not Alone
I’ve been there. Most of us start here. But if you’re reading this and feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by the lack of a clear formula, I want to offer you this:
You’re not lost. You’re learning to think in a new way.
Functional nursing isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing how to ask the right questions. And when you can do that? You don’t need a protocol. You have something far more powerful: a nursing process rooted in science, story, and soul.
Ready to Learn How Functional Nurses Actually Practice?
If you’re tired of bandaids and ready to think deeper, I’d love to support you. Through the Institute for Functional Nursing, we teach real-world clinical frameworks, not cookie-cutter protocols. We help nurses understand what to look for, how to interpret patterns, and how to guide healing from the inside out.
🎧 Listen: The Functional Nurse Podcast: How This Nurse Coach Built a Successful Functional Medicine Business
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🧠 Learn: Explore programs and resources made for nurses, by nurses at the Institute for Functional Nursing—where functional medicine meets practical, evidence-based care.
