Turning a Passion into a Health Coaching Career

As nurses explore new healthcare opportunities across the U.S., one model continues to stand out – worksite healthcare. Angela Hammond, RN health coach, care team manager, shares how her transition from traditional to worksite healthcare allowed her to broaden her scope from acute care to total population health management.

Worksite healthcare unites my two passions – health promotion and nursing.  The vision of worksite healthcare is to see wellness as a journey; a marathon instead of a sprint.  Providing tools and supportive relationships are vital to achieving long-term health improvements.  Health coaching can provide the motivation, structure, and accountability to help them get there. My previous nursing experiences focused primarily on single episodic problems. Worksite healthcare taps into all dimensions of health and wellness by changing how healthcare is delivered. We begin by identifying health risks to help patients understand their health and start on a path to healthy behavior change. Health coaching is the framework for this success. I have found meaning in building relationships with patients and fellow team members and striving to make a positive impact on wellness journeys.

I began my career with a degree in exercise physiology in corporate wellness and cardiac rehabilitation, but I felt an urge to broaden my scope with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

In 2013, I joined Marathon Health as an RN health coach; completing the circle of my two passions.  My training included a year-long course in motivational interviewing – a goal-oriented, patient-centered approach to elicit behavior change by building a trusting patient-clinician relationship. Through Marathon Health’s internal ambassadors’ university, I also took courses in leadership and team management.  At Marathon Health, there are so many opportunities to continue growing and make a difference.

Worksite wellness nursing involves a tremendous variety of roles and responsibilities – that vary from day-to-day. Compared to traditional healthcare, we see fewer patients each day. This allows us more time to uncover the root causes of health conditions or their social determinants of health. During the pandemic, we flexed our creative muscles by providing drive-up flu shots and safe wellness offerings.

Virtual services became another creative option to meet our patients where they’re at. For the majority of my patients, we never missed a beat by transitioning to virtual care visits. This quote from one of my patients says it all, “my health coaching visits give me hope to not give up on my health goals and that I wasn’t alone on my health journey.”

My patients have made me realize that no encounter is too small to light a spark for optimal health and wellness. Behavior change is hard, but with tools like motivational interviewing and continuing professional development resources, I have learned to never underestimate how one connection, one outreach, one kind gesture can make a difference in someone’s life, leading to optimal health. Meeting patients where they are is an amazing opportunity to make a real difference! Join our team and help us light the way to better healthcare – check out our careers page to find the latest openings.