◐ In development
Flourishing Nursing
A developing, nurse-led framework built around one question: How can nurses help people flourish while building conditions in which nurses can flourish, too?
Flourishing Nursing is still taking shape. It is not an accredited program, a certification, or an endorsed model, and it has no published outcomes yet. We’re sharing it now so nurses and colleagues can help shape it and decide how it should be tested.
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★ Featured Presentation ★
Moving Nursing Forward: The Journey
Nursing Can Build the Future of Lifestyle Medicine
Presented by Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM, to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s Nursing Member Interest Group on August 24, 2026. The full journey, in 30 slides: how nurses can move Lifestyle Medicine from information to experience.
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SLIDE 01
Nursing Can Build the Future of Lifestyle Medicine
“Sometimes the future begins when we hear the voice that has been calling us all along.”
🏥
SLIDE 02
Healthcare Became Great at Rescue—But Needs Upstream Nursing
“We became skilled at catching people after they fell.”
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SLIDE 03
Lifestyle Medicine Begins When We See Lives, Not Just Diagnoses
“The farther upstream we traveled, the more we began seeing lives.”
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SLIDE 04
Lifestyle Medicine Is Calling Nursing Home
“Lifestyle Medicine may be calling nursing home.”
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SLIDE 05
Patients Need Companions, Not More Shame
“What would healthcare look like if walking beside people became the model?”
❓
SLIDE 06
Information Is Not Enough—People Need Practice
“Information can point toward the trail, but people need somewhere to practice.”
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SLIDE 07
Nursing’s Roots Already Point Upstream
“The trail markers have been here for generations.”
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SLIDE 08
Moving Nursing Forward Means Returning to Nursing’s Roots
“Eventually the path leads to a wonderfully ordinary room: the kitchen.”
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SLIDE 09
The Kitchen Shapes Health Every Day
“A kitchen can influence someone every day for seventy years.”
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SLIDE 10
The Kitchen Is the Doorway; Flourishing Is the Destination
“The kitchen is the doorway; the destination is flourishing.”
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SLIDE 11
Healthcare Can Begin With Warmth and Welcome
“Come in. That might be where healthcare begins.”
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SLIDE 12
No Patient Should Walk the Journey Alone
“Each person carries part of the map.”
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SLIDE 13
The Whole Nursing Family Must Move Together
“Imagine the whole nursing family walking in the same direction.”
👩⚕️
SLIDE 14
Nurse Coaches Can Guide Community Connection
“Not commander. Connector. Not gatekeeper. Guide.”
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SLIDE 15
Innovation Starts by Connecting What Already Exists
“Innovation sometimes begins with attention.”
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SLIDE 16
Lifestyle Medicine Becomes Real When People Experience It
“Lifestyle Medicine becomes lived experience.”
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SLIDE 17
Movement Becomes Medicine When We Walk Together
“Sometimes movement is medicine. Sometimes companionship is medicine too.”
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SLIDE 18
Rest Is Biology—Sleep Must Be Protected
“Rest is not laziness. Rest is biology.”
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SLIDE 19
Healing Begins When Shame Becomes Learning
“I am not failing. I am learning.”
❤️
SLIDE 20
Belonging Is One of Healthcare’s Most Powerful Medicines
“Relationships may be one of the oldest medicines humans have ever known.”
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SLIDE 21
Shared Medical Appointments Bring the Paths Together
“The group brings something medicine cannot prescribe: each other.”
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SLIDE 22
The Future Is Not Heroes—It Is High-Functioning Teams
“The future is people walking together.”
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SLIDE 23
Sustainability Keeps the Journey Alive
“Dreams need infrastructure.”
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SLIDE 24
Artificial Intelligence Should Give Nurses Time for Humanity
“Let machines become better at machine work, so humans have more time for human work.”
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SLIDE 25
A Connected Map Can Become a Community of Health
“The map begins to look like a community capable of flourishing.”
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SLIDE 26
Every Community Can Build Its Own Path
“The framework travels. The community chooses the path.”
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SLIDE 27
America 250 Calls Nurses to Build More Health
“Not only more healthcare. More health.”
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SLIDE 28
Karen’s Leadership Helps Make Room for Nursing at the Table
“Leadership means pulling out another chair for the person coming next.”
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SLIDE 29
The Hive Grows When Every Nurse Contributes
“Many small acts of care become something larger than any one of us.”
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SLIDE 30
The Journey Begins When One Nurse Raises a Hand
“The journey has just begun.”
The End. Or maybe… the beginning.
From bedside to community · From information to experience · From disease management to flourishing · From telling… to walking beside
Shared by the presenter. This presentation is not an ACLM publication and does not imply ACLM endorsement of Kitchen Monk or Flourishing Nursing.
About the language on this page: phrases in the presentation such as “movement is medicine” or “belonging is one of healthcare’s most powerful medicines” are reflective, metaphorical language, not clinical claims, and they never replace indicated medical treatment. Where the titles of other people’s books or presentations below mention preventing or reversing chronic disease, those are their published titles, quoted to identify their work; they are not claims made by Kitchen Monk.
Who it’s for
Nurse practitioners, registered nurses, LPNs and LVNs, certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and nursing assistants, nurse coaches, nursing students, and international colleagues, working alongside dietitians, health coaches, community health workers, culinary partners, and others. It doesn’t assume any one country’s healthcare system.
◐ IN DEVELOPMENT — NOT CURRENTLY OFFERED
Welcome to ACFN
ACFN, the American College of Flourishing Nursing and Nurse Coaching, is an emerging professional nursing community and the roots of Flourishing Nursing: the soil where ideas are tested, people are connected, and the work can grow.
Please note: ACFN is an educational program concept in development. It is not an accrediting or certifying body, and it is not currently an accredited degree program, certification, licensure pathway, fellowship, or continuing-education offering unless specifically stated otherwise. Joining the conversation today means community participation, not a professional credential.
All of Nursing Is Invited to Flourish
Flourishing Nursing shares the spirit of the Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ vision: a healthier nursing workforce helps build a healthier nation. On June 27, 2026, the American Nurses Association’s Membership Assembly, which governs the organization that leads Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation, voted to open national membership to licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs) for the first time.
We celebrate that. Every nurse, from LPN and LVN to RN, NP, nurse coach, and student, has a place in helping the world flourish.
For LPNs and LVNs: ANA is still setting up how the new membership will work; American Nurse Journal reports the amendment takes effect July 1, 2028. Check ANA’s announcement for updates. Some state nurses associations already welcome LPNs and LVNs, so your state association is a good place to ask today.
Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are independent and are not affiliated with or endorsed by the American Nurses Association or Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation.
🌱 The roots of Flourishing Nursing 🌱
Flourishing Certified Nursing Assistants
If Flourishing Nursing is a garden, nursing assistants are its roots: closest to the ground, often unseen, and nourishing everything that grows.
Just as the American Nurses Association has opened its doors to LPNs and LVNs, Kitchen Monk hopes to welcome certified nursing assistants (CNAs), nursing assistants, and care aides around the world into the Flourishing Nursing movement.
Nursing assistants often spend more time with patients in their daily routines than anyone else on the care team, and they are often the first to notice when something has changed. Working within their scope and alongside nurses, they are well placed to help patients practice and reinforce the everyday habits that shape health: eating well, moving, resting, and staying connected.
Supporting those habits can help advance the Quadruple Aim of healthcare: better patient experience, better population health, lower costs, and a healthier care team. And because the nurse needs a garden too, Flourishing CNAs are invited to flourish themselves, not only to help others do so.
Flourishing Certified Nursing Assistants is an invitation into a developing community, not a certification, credential, or training program. It does not change any nursing assistant’s scope of practice, which is set by their state or country and their employer.
Recommended reading
Code Calm: A Nurse’s Guide to Surviving and Thriving
“Who nurses the nurse?” sits at the heart of Flourishing Nursing. That’s why we’re glad to share Code Calm, a new book from Nurse Blake (Blake Lynch, BSN, RN) and a team of nurse contributing authors. It offers honest, practical support for nurses who feel stretched thin, so they can care for themselves the way they care for their patients. The book benefits the Nurse Support Network.
Shared as a recommendation. Kitchen Monk is not affiliated with the book, its authors, or the Nurse Support Network.
Lampkeepers of lifestyle medicine
Communities and Programs That Light the Way
Some of the nurses who inspire Flourishing Nursing work quietly, in the spirit of Florence Nightingale: building communities, teaching classes, and walking beside people one step at a time. These are organizations and programs that nurse leaders like them have helped build and carry forward.
- Indiana Lifestyle Medicine Network: a community of clinicians and neighbors sharing events, education, and support for lifestyle medicine.
- Live Lifestyle Medicine (Eugene, Oregon): free community classes on nutrition and food as medicine, plus grocery tours, community walks, potlucks, and cooking demonstrations, supported by the nonprofit Eugene Plant Based Providers. Classes are taught by Dr. Charlie Ross, DO, a physician board certified in lifestyle medicine who has practiced in Oregon for more than 40 years, and Scott Wagnon, PA-C.
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine: the professional home for clinicians learning and practicing lifestyle medicine.
- Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP): a long-running, group-based lifestyle program built on whole plant foods, movement, rest, and stress management.
- National Diabetes Prevention Program: a CDC-recognized lifestyle change program for people at risk of type 2 diabetes.
Shared with gratitude. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are independent and are not affiliated with or endorsed by these organizations, programs, or people.
★ A light along the trail ★
Celebrating Joanne Evans, MEd, RN, PMHCNS-BC
Nurse, educator, author, and one of the SHEROES moving nursing forward
For years, Joanne Evans has shown what it looks like when a nurse leads the way in plant-forward health, prevention, and education. Her work with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and with nurses around the world is a living example of the heart of Flourishing Nursing: we are not merely asking nursing to take part in the future of healthcare. Nurses are already building it.
Milestones along her trail
- 2017: After Joanne presented on plant-based nutrition to nursing colleagues at George Mason University, 19 nurses tried a plant-based diet for 21 days with her weekly support, as reported by the Physicians Committee. She was lead author of the program’s write-up, “A Plant-Based Nutrition Program,” in the American Journal of Nursing (March 2017).
- Author: Cultivating Seeds of Health with Plant-Based Nutrition, sharing the stories of nurses who teach food as medicine (featured below).
- May 4, 2022: Featured guest speaker for the Physicians Committee’s Nurses Nutrition Network, where a recording of her conversation is shared.
- July 2023, on the world stage: Gave a presentation titled “Engaging Nurses to Utilize Plant-based Nutrition to Prevent and Reverse Chronic Disease,” along with work on nutritional psychiatry, at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress in Montreal (July 1–5, 2023). ICN reported that more than 6,000 nurses from 126 countries attended.
Nurses deserve to be seen. Nurses deserve to be celebrated. Nurses deserve a meaningful voice in prevention, nutrition, lifestyle medicine, culinary medicine, community health, and the transformation of healthcare.
When a nurse is lifted up, nursing is lifted up. When nursing is lifted up, patients, families, communities, and healthcare itself can flourish.
Shared with gratitude and admiration. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are independent and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Joanne Evans, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, or the International Council of Nurses.
🌱 Plantspiration for nurses
Cultivating Seeds of Health with Plant-Based Nutrition
Nurses Share Educational Approaches to Prevent and Reverse Chronic Disease, by Joanne Evans
If Kitchen Monk had a companion bookshelf, this book would be near the front. Joanne Evans shares how plant-based eating changed her own health, then gathers the stories of nurses who made the same change and now teach it to patients and communities. It’s a seed-by-seed picture of what nurse-led food as medicine can look like, and it pairs naturally with the kitchen-first spirit of Kitchen Monk.
We call what Joanne offers plantspiration, a word we borrow with gratitude from Stefanie Ignoffo, founder of Plantspiration®, a Chicago-area nonprofit that brings lifestyle medicine education and plant-based coaching to individuals and communities. Stefanie has been a personal health coach to Kitchen Monk’s founder. Plantspiration like theirs helps move nursing forward, near and far.
Shared with gratitude. Plantspiration® is a registered trademark of Plantspiration NFP Inc. Kitchen Monk is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Joanne Evans or Plantspiration®.
Food as Medicine · Nursing as Cultivation · Community as the Garden
From Knowledge to the Kitchen
Nutrition science can tell us why food matters. Education can tell us what changes may help. But flourishing requires something more: the confidence to actually live it.
That is why Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are inspired by educational models such as the Food for Life classes from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Designed by physicians, nurses, and registered dietitians, Food for Life brings nutrition science into the kitchen, turning information into practical skills, shared meals, community, and hope.
What inspires us most:
- practical nutrition education that translates evidence into everyday choices
- cooking demonstrations and hands-on culinary learning
- whole-food, plant-forward approaches to prevention and chronic-disease risk reduction
- building skills and confidence rather than simply handing out instructions
- supportive group learning that makes food education enjoyable, social, and realistic within ordinary life
People rarely need another handout telling them to “eat healthier.” They need someone to walk into the kitchen with them and show them how. For Kitchen Monk, food is never just a list of nutrients or restrictions. It is where education becomes practice, where families gather, where culture is expressed, and where prevention becomes something you can taste. Kitchen Monk isn’t here to replace excellent programs like this one. We want to learn from them, amplify them, and build nursing-led pathways alongside them, together with dietitians, culinary professionals, nurse coaches, community health workers, physicians, and families.
From The EVERgreen Chronicles™
The lesson was never meant to remain inside the textbook.
It had to reach the cutting board.
The soup pot.
The family table.
The community room.
And finally, the life of the person learning to flourish.
With gratitude to the Food for Life instructors and nurse leaders who create space for nurses to help carry this work forward.
Inspired by, not affiliated with: Food for Life is a program of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are independent and are not affiliated with, partnered with, or endorsed by Food for Life or the Physicians Committee.
Pull Up a Chair at The Flourishing Table
Kitchen Monk’s full framework for turning food education into skills, community, and flourishing: Learn → Cook → Taste → Practice → Share → Connect → Sustain → Flourish.
🪔 The Florence Nightingales of our day 🪔
With Gratitude to Tammy and Cody
With gratitude to Tammy and Cody for their leadership, service, and continued work in helping nurses participate meaningfully in nutrition education, plant-based health, and the Food for Life community. Their work represents the kind of collaborative leadership that helps move nursing forward.
Tammy Robertson, RN, BSN
Registered nurse, certified Food for Life instructor, and founder of Planted Into Wellness, teaching plant-based cooking, culinary medicine, and lifestyle medicine. Tammy serves as co-chair of the Physicians Committee’s Nurses Nutrition Network, helping gather nurses around nutrition science and practical food education.
Cody Stubbe, MSN, RN
Registered nurse for nearly two decades, nursing instructor, and certified Food for Life instructor since 2019. Cody founded Wholistic Dish, bringing whole-food, plant-based cooking and lifestyle medicine into colleges and healthcare settings, and hosts Nurses Nutrition Network gatherings alongside Tammy.
Nurses do not merely reinforce health education after someone else provides it. Nurses can be educators, facilitators, coaches, connectors, innovators, advocates, and leaders in their own right.
Shared with gratitude. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are independent and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Tammy Robertson, Cody Stubbe, the Nurses Nutrition Network, Food for Life, or the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
What it brings together
The framework draws on the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and asks how each one shows up in five places nurses work.
Six pillars
- Nutrition
- Physical activity
- Restorative sleep
- Stress management
- Positive social connection
- Avoiding risky substances
Five places they matter
- Patient care: practical support that fits real lives
- Nurse wellbeing: who nurses the nurse?
- Education: teaching skills, not only facts
- Community partnerships: kitchens, gardens, schools, faith and civic groups
- Health systems: making the healthier path easier to take
What a session should leave you with
One action you can take, one partner to take it with, and one way to learn whether it helps.
SHEROES: the people who move nursing forward
Flourishing Nursing celebrates seven roles people play in helping others flourish: Supporters, Healers, Educators, Responders, Organizers, Empowerers, and Systems leaders. Nurses lead, and families, caregivers, community health workers, and culinary partners belong here too.
Where it stands
On August 24, 2026, Nathanael Elijah Smith, FNP-C, DipACLM, presented “Nursing Can Build the Future of Lifestyle Medicine” to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s Nursing Member Interest Group. Following that presentation, he is developing the concept further as a proposed workshop that Lifestyle Medicine Centers might consider in the future. No workshop has been approved, scheduled, certified, sponsored, or endorsed by ACLM or any other organization.
◇ FUTURE VISION — NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
Looking ahead
We strive for Flourishing Nursing to one day grow into a reimbursable lifestyle medicine program, so that nurse-led lifestyle care can be part of how healthcare is paid for, not an optional extra. Flourishing Nursing is not reimbursable today, and there is no timeline for that yet.
Others have shown the path is possible. Dr. Dean Ornish spent years building the evidence that led Medicare to cover the Ornish Reversal Program under a new benefit category, Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation, in 2010. It was the first time Medicare covered a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes. Learn about Ornish Lifestyle Medicine.
Named with admiration. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Dr. Ornish or Ornish Lifestyle Medicine. “Ornish Reversal Program” is that program’s own name.
How you can help
- Tell us what would make this useful in your setting.
- Offer to review draft materials or help design an evaluation.
- Add yourself to the Community Map as a clinician, so we can see where interest exists.
Continue the Journey Together
Join the Kitchen Monk free community on Facebook. No purchase required, no perfection required.
Flourishing Nursing is educational and professional-development content. It is not a clinical service and does not replace individual medical care.
