Kim Richards, RN
Integrative Nurse Health Coach (INC)
Founder/Owner, Self-Care Academy™
President, Kim Richards & Associates, Inc.
An Integrative Nurse Coach (INC) provides
support and structure for a client who is interested
in pursuing wellness, adjusting to and/or making life
changes, navigating their health care, working with
or preventing chronic disease, and dealing with a
health and/or life challenge. Coaching works within
a therapeutic, collaborative and caring environment
that facilitates and encourages a client’s own process
of beliefs and their receptivity for optimal wellness in
mental, physical and emotional health, spiritual wellbeing, relationships and environmental life style.
As a nurse and an executive recruiter, Kim became
increasingly aware of the “revolving door” of nurses
in acute care facilities. After interviewing hundreds of
nurses, Kim noticed a common theme was emerging.
Nurses were expressing signs and symptoms of
Compassion Fatigue, a debilitating phenomenon that
is caused by years of built up emotional residue. By combining her passion for nursing, fitness and coaching as
well as her extensive research on the science of self-care, Kim created the components of Self-Care Academy,
LLC, a comprehensive program that is dedicated to improving employee engagement, relationships with peers
and creating an optimum healing environment for patients. Through coaching sessions, active participation and
learning various modalities of self-care and stress reduction, the SCA program creates a lasting behavioral shift
that is documented by measurable metrics.
She is an active member of the:
• Association of Nurse Executives (AONE)
• National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
• American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA)
• Global Nursing Exchange (GNE)
• American Council on Exercise
Kim serves on the Advisory Board of the International Integrative Nurse Coach Association and has served on the
leadership faculty of the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence. She lives in beautiful Colorado and enjoys a very
active lifestyle of hiking, biking and skiing in the Rocky Mountains. She teaches aerobics, spinning, kickboxing and
yoga. She enjoys traveling, volunteering, reading and encouraging others to create their best life without limitation.
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Recent Publications:
• Nurses: To care for others, we must FIRST care for ourselves, Reflections of Nursing Leadership
• AJN Book of the Year Award 2012! Richards, K,( 2012) The Practice of Self-Care to Prevent Burnout
and Create the Optimal Healing Environment. Mastering Precepting: A Nurse’s Handbook for Success,
ed. Beth Ulrich. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.
• Shiparski L, Richards K, Nelson J, Self-Care Strategies to Enhance Caring.Nurse Leader, June 2011,
Volume 9, Issue 3: 26.
• Richards K, Nelson J, Overcoming Obstacles to Create the Optimal Healing Environment. Nurse Leader,
April 2011, Volume 9, Issue 2: 37.
• Krischke M, Richards K, Expert Tips to Combat Compassion Fatigue Nurse Connect On-Line,February
2011.
• Douglas, K, (Richards, K contributor) When Caring Stops, Staffing Doesn’t Really Matter Nursing
Economic$. November/December 2010: 415.
• Richards, K. (2009). 1) Self Recovery and Renewal 2) Jobless and Searching. 101 Global Leadership
Lessons for Nurses: Shared Legacies from Leaders and their Mentors, ed. Nancy Rollins Gantz.
Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.
• Nurse Leader, April 2007 as the “Leader to Watch”.
• Richards, K. (2007) “Nurse Entrepreneurship: Braving the Deep” in Stringing Pearls, a book that
highlights the personal journeys of twenty one of the nation’s outstanding nursing leaders. ed. Leslie
Furlow. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.