Core Curriculum for Holistic Nursing

Barbara Montgomery Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN-Co-Director, International Nurse Coach Association (INCA), Co-Director Integrative Nurse Coach Certificate Program (INCCP), International Co-Director, Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH), Director, Holistic Nursing Consultants

Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, HNC, FAAN, is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the holistic nursing movement.  She is Director of Holistic Nursing Consultants in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She has authored or co-authored 20 books including Compassionate Care of the Dying: Manual and Standards for Practice (2003), Florence Nightingale:  Mystic, Visionary, Healer (2000), Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice (2000), AHNA Standards of Holistic Nursing Practice (2000), Profiles of Nurse Healers (1998), AHNA Core Curriculum for Holistic Nursing (editor, 1997), AACN Handbook of Critical Care Nursing (1997), and Rituals of Healing (1994).

Barbara is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She is certified in holistic nursing. She is a seven-time recipient of the prestigious American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. She was awarded the 1985 Holistic Nurse of the Year by the American Holistic Nurses' Association; the 1998 Healer of the Year by the Nurse Healers Professional Associates International, Inc.; the 1999 Pioneering Spirit Award by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses; and the 1999 Scientific and Medical Network Book of the Year by the Scientific and Medical Network, United Kingdom. The Doody’s Rating Service awarded her Florence Nightingale: Mystic Visionary, Healer as one of the 250 Best Health Sciences Books in 2000.  In 2001 she was recognized as TWU 100 Great Nursing Alumni, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas. She received the 2003 Distinguished Alumna Award from Baylor University, Waco, Texas

A major focus of her work currently is holistic nursing, compassionate care for the dying, and virtual education.  She is also exploring the impact of Florence Nightingale’s life and work on modern nursing and humankind.  For the 72nd General Episcopal Church Convention in Philadelphia July 1997, Barbara wrote three of five documents to accompany the Resolution Proposal to request the reconsideration of Nightingale’s commemoration and for her name to be placed on the church calendar list of Lesser Feast and Fasts in the Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer.  The official vote to accept Nightingale to the church calendar occurred in July 2000. The inaugural Florence Nightingale Commemorative Service was held on August 12, 2001, at the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.