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Clinical Nurse Specialists & Nurse Practitioners

The positions of Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) were created in the 1960s to help make the best use of the talents an experienced nurse possesses, according to Page and Mackowiak (1997). However, Holmes (1998) suggests that these roles began much earlier. According to her paper, the role of CNS developed between 1938 and 1943, and she adds that the National League of Nursing Education noted a shortage of clinical nurse specialists resulting from World War II. However, at these earlier times, it was considered that once a nurse had received her diploma, her education was complete.

It was not until 1963 that the federal Professional Nurse Traineeship Program was expanded to include education for clinical nurse specialists (Holmes, 1998). With advancing technology and the demanded for increasingly specialized health care, the role of the CNS has become increasingly important, together with the roles of NP, nurse midwife and nurse anesthetist.

The roles of CNS and NP have diverged so that the CNS is found chiefly in an acute care institution, while an NP is more likely to be found in a community setting and involved in health promotion and physical assessment in an outpatient setting (Page and Mackowiak, 1997). In her work setting, the CNS has broad experience with the acutely ill hospitalized patient. She has more knowledge, expertise and experience in specialized areas of nursing than can be learned in a basic nursing diploma course. The American Nurses Association has two criteria a CNS must posses: a graduate degree in the study of scientific knowledge, and supervised advanced clinical practice of a specific area of nursing; and eligibility or certification by a professional society. A CNS often has a sub-role: as a researcher, either by taking part in an actual research study, or by disseminating research data to staff; as a consultant, planning complex care plans for patients, or ad...

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Clinical Nurse Specialists & Nurse Practitioners. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:52, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701537.html