title: The covered wagon journey: student chronicles in advanced holistic nursing.
abstract: This article recounts the experiences of a first cohort of graduate students in a newly implemented advanced holistic nursing (AHN) track, one of only a handful in the nation, and the first in Florida. The increasing popularity of complementary and alternative healing processes represents the insufficiency of a health system of fragmented care and a desire for holistic healing that is beyond mainstream allopathic care. Graduate holistic nurse education equips nurses to explore the commitment needed to advance the evolution of health care. The covered wagon journey is a metaphor for this meaningful participation. Students journaled their experiences as cotravelers in a lone wagon: embarking on a courageous journey, forging a path of discovery, and reaching their destination as pioneers. This cohort experience embodied the central tenets of holistic nursing, thus creating conscious change and unity within a learning community. The future of AHN is addressed in the context of the contemporary health care environment.
authors.affiliation: Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. mpurnell@fau.edu
authors.forename: Marguerite J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Purnell
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: Christie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Aleida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drozdowicz
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eckes
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kinchen
authors.forename: Nikkisha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Smith-Atkinson
mesh_terms: D057179:Advanced Practice Nursing / Q000193:education* / Q000639:trends*; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000639:trends*; D018939:Holistic Nursing / Q000193:education* / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*