"Coaching Roots" — for nurse coaches and nurse entrepreneurs who are ready to stop patching symptoms and start building healthier, profitable practices.

The Root Reflection

A short, personal reflection from Mary that invites readers beneath the surface of nursing, coaching, leadership, and business. This section offers a grounded thought, story, or question to help nurses pause, look inward, and notice what is being strengthened at the root — not just what is happening on the surface.

Welcome to the July edition of Coaching Roots.

I chose the name "Coaching Roots” because I keep seeing the same thing in nurses, nurse coaches, and nurse entrepreneurs. We are often taught to treat what is visible, urgent, and loud. The symptom gets our attention first.

But real healing begins deeper.

The same is true in business, coaching, leadership, and life. Surface changes may bring temporary relief, and rooted growth asks something more of us. It asks us to slow down, tell the truth, examine the pattern, and strengthen what is beneath the work.

That is the space I intend this newsletter to hold.

Not more noise or pressure. Not another list of things you “should” be doing.

Just rooted insight for nurses ready to grow deeper, lead stronger, and build what lasts.

The Root Deliberate Practice

Growth as a leader, coach or entrepreneur does not come from talent, time, or another certificate alone. It comes from practicing the right skills with intention, feedback, and a willingness to stay at the edge of your current ability. This section is where we slow down and look at one coaching skill, leadership skill, or business-building practice that helps you become more competent, confident, and effective in the real work.

This month’s root: Your work is not just something you are building. It is something that is building you.

Many nurses step into coaching, leadership, or business ownership believing the work is “out there.”

The clients.

The team.

The marketing.

The money.

The systems.

The calendar.

The enrollment conversations.

But at the root, your practice is not separate from you. It is reflecting back the places where you are being invited to grow.

If you keep avoiding visibility, your business may be inviting you into fuller expression.

If you keep overgiving, your leadership may be inviting you into cleaner boundaries.

If you keep undercharging, your practice may be inviting you into deeper worth.

If you keep rescuing, your coaching may be inviting you to trust people’s capacity instead of carrying their transformation for them.

This is the deeper practice: stop asking only, “How do I fix this?”

Ask instead:

“What is this situation trying to develop in me?”

That question changes everything.

It moves the nurse business owner from strategy alone to self-leadership.

It moves the nurse coach from technique alone to presence.

It moves the nurse leader from control to conscious responsibility.

Because the root of your work is not just what you do.

It is who you are becoming as you do it.

Resource: The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

The Root Assessment

A brief look at what is happening in the nursing landscape — the trends, pressures, shifts, and challenges affecting nurses, nurse coaches, nurse leaders, and nurse entrepreneurs. This section helps readers notice the deeper patterns beneath burnout, career uncertainty, leadership strain, and business dis-ease, then offers a reflection question to help them assess what may be asking for attention at the root.

Nursing is not only facing a staffing challenge. It is facing a sustainability challenge.

The 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study from NCSBN found that more than 138,000 nurses have left the workforce since 2022. The same study reported that nearly 40% of nurses intend to leave the workforce or retire by 2029.

That number matters, not as a statistic to fear, but as a signal to notice.

For nurse leaders, it shows up in retention, morale, and team trust.

For nurse coaches, it shows up in conversations with nurses who are tired, questioning, or ready for a different way to serve.

For nurse entrepreneurs, it shows up as a deeper invitation: build work that is not only meaningful, but sustainable.

The future of nursing will require more than resilience. It will require new models of care, leadership, business, and self-stewardship.

REFLECTION:

Where in your nursing work are you being asked to stop enduring and start redesigning? What would become possible if sustainability became part of your definition of service?

Rooted & Rising

Each month, this space will honor a nurse, nurse coach, or nurse entrepreneur who is in the process of growing deeper roots. Not a polished success story. Not a perfect before-and-after. A real story.

For this first edition, I want to begin close to home…The Founder’s Root.

I’m Mary Turner, founder of CoachRN. I’m a registered nurse, board-certified nurse coach, business owner, and someone who has lived both the beauty and the cost of building from survival.

My work did not come from theory alone. It came from experience — from building a multimillion-dollar healthcare business, losing it, carrying too much alone, and learning that success without roots is not really sustainable.

That journey changed how I see nurses, coaching, leadership, and business.

I created CoachRN for nurses who feel called to grow beyond the role they were handed, but who do not want to lose themselves in the process. Nurses who want deeper work, stronger structure, cleaner leadership, and a business or career that is rooted in who they truly are.

CoachRN exists because I believe nurses are not only caregivers.

We are creators, leaders, healers, builders, and voices the world deeply needs.

Read more...

Upcoming Roots

If something in this first issue meets you where you are, there is a place to continue the conversation.

This month, I’m opening the Coaching Lottery: Everybody Wins.

One nurse will receive a full year of coaching with me. And every nurse who enters will receive one month of coaching.

I created this because sometimes the next shift does not happen from more information. It happens when you have space to hear yourself clearly, tell the truth, and be supported as you take your next step.

This is for the nurse, nurse coach, or nurse entrepreneur who is ready for deeper support, clearer direction, and a grounded place to grow.

Curious? Here’s what it looks like →

The Heart & Mind of Nurse Coaching™ opens again this fall.

This 6-month CoachRN program is for nurses who want to gain the skills to become board-certified nurse coaches. We begin Thursday, September 10, 2026, with live sessions held on Thursday evenings.

Curious? Here’s what it looks like →

Root Check

Check out three quick picks from CoachRN's resource center or from external sources Mary trusts.

https://thebusinessofnursing.com/blog/real-entrepreneurship

The Root of the Matter

May you lead with more ease, listen with more depth, and remember to take good care of your roots this month. What is beneath the surface is where the real growth begins.