The health care system in the United States has been an extensive area which has scope for several designations and one of the important and essential job profiles is the role of clinical nurse specialists. They take care of numerous responsibilities and have the potential to serve the needs and expectations of health care consumers. The demands of such consumers are met by Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Advance Practice Registered Nurse (ARPN). However, there are exclusive responsibilities and privileges assigned to ARPN but not for CNS. Some of those distinguished features remain as a challenge for the number of clinical nurse specialist and they are invariably working to look upon it and prove themselves in the US health care industry.
The clinical nurse specialists own the responsibility in a large and prominent role that would guide them to make sure to deliver high-quality health care services to the citizens of United States. The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) has projected a number of responsibilities which would fulfil the expectations of an expert clinical nurse specialist and in turn enhance the career of an individual supporting distinct consumer satisfaction.
The standard definition given to the framework of a clinical nurse specialist as told by NACNS is, they are the graduates known as licensed registered professional nurses hailing from a program exclusively designed for the purpose of preparing CNSs. There is also another way of preparing professional CNSs that specializes in post master’s certificate program recognized by a national nursing accrediting body whose motto is to prepare graduates to practice as a CNS for a specialty population. The sole importance of CNSs is defined as a group of professional healthcare clinical experts deployed in the diagnosis and treatment of illness and the delivery of evidence-based nursing interventions. The coexistence of fellow nurses is also defined in their statement. It says that the advancement of each CNS could be achieved through effective learning of nursing practices followed by the co-workers and then implementing them to create a clinical expertise and improve programs of health care systems.
Important functions of CNSs include the monitoring and development of clinical regulatory practices, diagnosing type of problem (for instance: surgical), type of care (example: critical care), pathlogy, disease, medical specialty such as the cardiac, pulmonary or spinal cord. There is a list of practice competencies that CNS adhere to and it includes three major interacting spheres of influence such as the patient/client sphere, organization/system sphere and nurses/nursing sphere. After analyzing these respective practices, CNS practices will be chosen based on the type of core competencies that are enacted.
Training is the basic building block for any kind of healthcare professional and CNSs are no exception to it. In the United States, the CNS training has already attained a master class level by including courses involving advanced pharmacology, advanced pathophysiology, and advanced health assessment. Additional courses to enhance the training experience consists of theories based on nursing techniques, the role of a clinical nurse specialist, practices on evidence-based mechanisms and theory.
The paramount importance of clinical nurse roles in the United States has pushed the level of education system to another extent by the strong influence of NACNS. The content oriented education system incorporates practices of theorectical foundations for CNS, Providence of advanced knowledge by infusing critical/clinical inquiry thinking process, practices based on evaluating products or technology or devices including its selection and use, spreading the awareness for inter-professional collaboration necessary for leadership development, theories on consultation, measurement theories, different levels of influence change, systems thinking and scientific based theories for the design and development of innovative nursing innovations.