The Canadian Holistic Nurses Association was started in 1986 by a group of nurses from British Columbia, Canada. They began as a special interest group of the Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia. The group applied to the Canadian Nurses’ Association and was granted Special Interest Group Status in 1986. For many years, the CHNA offered a nursing specialization course related to holistic nursing practice developed by Dr. Ruth Lamb and Dr. Barbara Dobbie. Dr Dobie continued to run this specialization course for nurses until 2014 and Dr. Ruth Lamb changed positions and began to work for Langara College. Once at Langara College Ruth developed the course into the Advanced Integrative Energy Healing Certificate Program offered through Langara College since 1998 until 2020.

The CHNA represents nurses from coast to coast to coast and acknowledges the ancestral territories of all Indigenous people of this country.

As the CHNA pledges to uphold and uplift the voice and values of our nurses, so do we pledge our commitment to upholding healthy relationships, ethics, protocols, traditional knowledge, and cultural practices that reflect and pay tribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action.