General roles and responsibilities of a holistic nurse may include:
- Creating person-centered care plans that reflect the individual’s values, preferences, and overall well-being, rather than focusing only on the disease process
- Building therapeutic relationships so patients feel heard, respected, and actively involved in their care
- Supporting healing environments that promote comfort, trust, safety, and a stronger sense of connection in care
- Incorporating mind-body-spirit perspectives into care, with attention to how mental, emotional, and spiritual factors may influence health outcomes
- Conducting whole-person assessments that may include physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural, and energy dimensions
- Practicing with cultural humility and recognizing how identity, background, beliefs, and lived experience shape each patient’s healthcare needs
- Providing trauma-responsive, relationship-centered care that takes into account how past experiences may affect trust, communication, and healing
- Educating patients on ways to support health and wellness, including self-care, stress management, nutrition, and other appropriate lifestyle strategies
- Applying knowledge of nutrition and plant-based medicine concepts to support health, vitality, and prevention-focused care where appropriate
- Using advanced communication and coaching-style skills to support reflection, behavior change, and goal-setting in practice, education, or leadership settings
- Collaborating with other professionals to support safe, inclusive, and equitable care for diverse individuals, families, and communities
- Demonstrating professional presence, self-reflection, accountability, and self-care as part of a sustainable nursing practice
In short, a holistic nurse does many of the same core things any nurse does, but with a wider lens. They combine clinical nursing care with whole-person support, helping patients heal in ways that are more individualized, relational, and responsive to whole-person health.
Learn more about the Holistic Integrative Health program
BLS pay estimates calculate the median annual wage for various occupations. Per the BLS the median wage for an occupation is: "The wage at which half of the workers in the occupation earned more than that amount, and half earned less. Median wage data are from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey." Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook 2024. BLS median wage estimates do not represent entry-level wages and/or salaries. Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geographic market in which you want to work, and degree level and field, will affect career outcomes, including starting salary and earnings as an experienced employee. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the median salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, particular wage or salary, or other career growth.
Discover your potential
Get in touch to learn more about our school and how we can help you reach your highest career goals.
Waived Enrollment Fee
Discover the educational pathway designed to maximize your career potential. Reach for greater heights with Herzing University.