🩺 For nurses and everyone who cares for others
Flourishing Nursing Forward™
Helping people flourish, while building a world where nurses can flourish too.
● Nurses’ group: AVAILABLE NOW · FREE ◐ Framework & programs: IN DEVELOPMENT
Educational and community-based. Not a certification, accredited program, or clinical service.
Flourishing Nursing now has its own professional home. The philosophy, evidence library, nurse coaching resources, programs, presentations, and ACFN live at FlourishingNursing.org →. This page keeps the story of how it all began, here on Kitchen Monk.
What becomes possible when nurses have the education, tools, relationships, and community they need to help people flourish?
That question is the heart of this movement. Nurses already walk beside people through birth, illness, recovery, and aging. Flourishing Nursing Forward invites nurses, nurse practitioners (NPs), nurse coaches, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), students, and every colleague on the care team to also walk beside people toward health: in kitchens, on trails, at tables, and in communities.
Why do we live? To love. To serve. To help one another flourish.
Nurses light the way. Someone should light it for them, too.
Every lantern on this trail was hung by a nurse: at a bedside at 3 a.m., in a school hallway, on a home visit down a gravel road. We care about what nurses do. We also care whether nurses themselves flourish.
A moment by the Lamp: can you remember why you began?
Illustration created with AI assistance.
The Nurse Needs a Garden Too
Nurses carry long shifts, heavy workloads, grief, and the quiet weight of caring for others day after day. Nurse wellbeing isn’t a luxury. It’s part of the work. Your life belongs in the care plan too.
- Nourishment: real food that fits a real shift.
- Rest: protecting sleep, including on night shift.
- Connection: peers who understand, and leaders who listen.
- Systems: workplaces where flourishing is possible, not just willpower.
If you are a nurse in distress, please reach out to someone you trust or a professional. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 at any time. · Who cares for the caregiver? →
● AVAILABLE NOW · FREE · KITCHEN MONK
🧰 The Flourishing Nursing Coach Ninja™
The right tool. The right person. The right moment. Pause, notice, ask, choose, connect, and know when to call another helper. Plus a salute to Nurse Blake’s Code Calm, because nurses need places to find calm too.
Keep in mind: the toolbox is free to read here. Code Calm is an independent book, sold separately.
Where to go from here
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT 🩺 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
🌱 The framework
Flourishing Nursing asks not only “What disease are we managing?” but “What does this person need to flourish?” A developing framework, not a recognized specialty or accredited program.
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT
🚶 Move with people
Nurse-led community walks, rides, and gentle movement are now forming. Founding nurse leaders are welcome.
FREE · KITCHEN MONK
🍲 Cook with people
Food skills, teaching kitchens, and family meals, alongside registered dietitians and chefs.
FREE · INDEPENDENT RESOURCE
🥣 Start a free group visit
Ardmore Institute of Health’s free Full Plate Living curriculum, in English and Spanish, for clinicians who want to lead group education.
Nurses who inspire us: Meryl Fury, MS, RN · Lisa McCarl
Keep learning: Lifestyle Medicine Library · ACFN (American College of Flourishing Nursing and Nurse Coaching), our developing nursing community
Connecting, not competing
Nursing is enormous, and no single organization holds all of it. Flourishing Nursing Forward encourages nurses to explore the excellent communities that already exist: for standards and practice, nurse practitioners, holistic nursing, nurse coaching, and nurse-led business.
Explore the Nursing Resource Hub →
See What’s Happening in Nursing →
American Holistic Nurses Association ↗ · Integrative Nurse Coach® Academy ↗ · ANA ↗ · AANP ↗ · NNBA ↗
Independent organizations. They do not sponsor, endorse, or affiliate with Kitchen Monk™.
Rooted in evidence-based lifestyle medicine
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine describes six pillars: nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connection, and avoiding risky substances. Kitchen Monk adds its own storytelling framework of nine pathways, including purpose, community, stewardship, and, for those who want it, faith and compassion. That extension is ours, not ACLM’s.
This is never nurses instead of anyone. Healthcare flourishes when every profession brings its gifts to the same garden.
Interdisciplinary Roots
Flourishing Nursing Forward™ developed through years of learning across nursing, lifestyle medicine, prevention, nutrition, Food as Medicine, patient education, behavior change, and interdisciplinary mentorship. Earlier chapters of Nathanael Smith’s journey included mentorship from lifestyle-medicine physician Dr. Ron Weiss, DipABLM, portions of which remain preserved through archived Chef AJ programming.
Learning from other disciplines didn’t lead away from nursing. It deepened the belief in what nursing can become. We learn from physicians, dietitians, chefs, therapists, community health workers, patients, and families. Nurses then bring those lessons together at the human point of care.
Explore the Mentorship Archive →
Historical mentorship, not endorsement. Dr. Weiss is independent and has not reviewed or endorsed Flourishing Nursing Forward™.
⭐ A Mentor’s Recognition. Former mentor Dr. Ron Weiss, DipABLM, publicly recognized Nathanael during an archived Chef AJ discussion. Watch that moment, and the Lyme disease conversation, with embedded players and timestamp buttons.
★ A milestone · August 24, 2026
Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM, presented “Moving Nursing Forward: The Journey” to ACLM’s Nursing Member Interest Group. It was part of the continuing development of this vision and does not represent ACLM endorsement. See the slides →
Oregon spotlight: Dr. Charlie Ross, DO, teaches free community classes on food as medicine through Live Lifestyle Medicine in Eugene, with Scott Wagnon, PA-C. Shared with admiration from public sources; no affiliation or endorsement.
Nurses leading, not watching. In Women’s Wellness / OptiMYz, Robin Jeep describes Nathanael’s view that nurse practitioners can bridge the gap between medical knowledge and everyday life. Read Robin Jeep’s article ↗ · More stories
🌱 Robin’s next chapter: Chef Robin Jeep is co-author, with Nathanael, of The Book of the Garden: The Cup of Flourishing, and is leading an effort to bring Kitchen Monk to a community college in New Mexico. Meet Robin
We believe healthcare can become more human.
We believe kitchens can become classrooms.
We believe communities can become extensions of care.
We believe nurses themselves deserve to flourish.
And we believe the work begins wherever someone chooses to care for another human being.
Flourishing Nursing Forward™ and Flourishing Nursing are developing, educational Kitchen Monk™ initiatives. They are not clinical services, certifications, or accredited programs, do not change anyone’s scope of practice, and are not endorsed by ACLM or any professional organization.
