100 Episodes of Functional Nursing: Research, Evidence & the Future of Healthcare

Sponsored by the Institute for Functional Nursing. Learn more about our programs at www.fxnursing.com. The Functional Nurse Podcast is celebrating its 100th episode! In this milestone episode, Dr. Brigitte Sager reflects on the evolution of functional nursing—from the early conversations that inspired this podcast to a growing movement of nurses and nurse practitioners bringing root-cause, holistic, and personalized care into healthcare. With that foundation established, Brigitte looks ahead to an important next chapter: strengthening the evidence for functional nursing through research, quality improvement, evidence-based practice, and meaningful patient outcomes. Brigitte explores how nurses and nurse practitioners can help shape the future of functional medicine by asking better clinical questions and studying what actually improves patient care. She shares ideas for DNP projects, PhD research, capstones, quality improvement initiatives, patient-reported outcomes, and practice-based research—including nutrition assessments, functional medicine screening tools, group visits, nurse coaching, access to care, patient satisfaction, and clinician outcomes. She also discusses the Institute for Functional Medicine's approach to studying the complete functional medicine care model and why systems thinking, antecedents, triggers and mediators, modifiable lifestyle factors, and personalization matter when evaluating functional care. Whether you're currently in nursing school, considering an advanced degree, or simply want to help transform healthcare, this episode invites nurses to help build the evidence that can move functional nursing forward. IFM's research page 🔗 https://www.ifm.org/about/research