Why We Use A Wholistic Instead of a Holistic Approach to Nurse Wellbeing

You may have noticed that we spell wholistic with a “w.” That’s not a typo—it’s intentional. And it reflects something deep about who we are and what we believe about healing, nursing, and being human.

Yes, holistic is the more familiar term in healthcare. It’s widely used in medical, academic, and professional settings to describe care that considers the whole person—body, mind, and spirit. It’s rooted in the Greek word holos, meaning “whole,” and it’s an important term. But for us at CODE YOU, it doesn’t go quite far enough.

We use wholistic because we’re after something more than symptom management or burnout prevention. We believe in restoring the nurse—body, soul, identity, and calling—so they can offer their full presence to the patients they care for. Wholistic care is about remembering who you are beneath the exhaustion, the expectations, and the systems that often forget you’re human too.

It also recognizes something that isn’t always easy to admit in healthcare: not everything can be fixed. Not all illnesses have cures. Not all pain goes away. But that doesn’t mean healing isn’t possible. Wholistic care invites us to shift from fixing to being with, from doing to becoming. It offers space for deeper restoration—even in the midst of suffering, loss, or deep challenge.

A Story That Stays With Me

During my years as a hospice nurse, I sat with people at the edge of life—where there was nothing left to treat, but still so much left to give. I remember one patient in particular. She was a teacher, a mother, and she was nearing the end of her journey. Her family was gathered, tender but weary, unsure how to say goodbye.

There were no medical tasks left, only presence.

So I sat with them. I helped her husband hold her hand. I adjusted her pillow so she could breathe more easily. I lit a candle. I read a poem she used to teach her students. I didn’t change the outcome—but the room changed. The energy softened. Her family told me later, “You helped us see her, not just her dying.”

That’s wholistic care. Not because I had a cure, but because I could show up with compassion, with steadiness, with something whole in me meeting something whole in them—even in the face of loss.

The “W” Matters

Others in the healing professions have made this shift too. Many faith-based practitioners prefer wholistic because it honors the sacred and spiritual dimensions of healing (Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobson, 2013). It invites us to remember that being whole is not the same as being perfect. That we can be deeply present, even while carrying our own questions, grief, or fatigue. That wholeness is possible even when a cure is not.

And as a community of nurses, we believe this doesn’t just apply to individuals. Wholistic care is also about restoring the collective heart of nursing—a profession rooted in compassion, courage, and connection. It’s about rebuilding a culture where we care for one another, not just for others.

Whether we’re leading a retreat, hosting our monthly Wellbeing Gatherings, or guiding nurse leaders through CE-accredited courses, CODE YOU is here to nurture this wholistic vision of what it means to be a healer in today’s world.

We know wholistic isn’t the common spelling. But maybe that’s the point. We’re not here to do things the usual way—we’re here to do what brings us back to life.