Nurse anesthetist
CRNA
Nurse midwife
CNM
Nurse practitioner
NP
Clinical Nurse Specialist
CNS
Definition
A Master’s prepared Advanced
Practice nurse whose function
is to improve outcomes in
patient care
Spheres of Practice
Patient
care
Nursing
Systems
National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
1. Direct care competency
2. Consultation competency
3. Systems leadership competency
4. Collaboration competency
5. Coaching competency
6. Research competency
7. Ethical decision-making
National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists 2010
 Population
 Setting: acute, ED, ICU, independent
 Disease or medical subspecialty:
 Type: rehabilitation, long term,
mental health, palliative
 Type of problem: wound, pain
 Family/individual across life span
 Adult gerontology
 Neonatal
 Pediatrics
 Women’s health/gender-related
 Psychiatric/mental health
 Performance improvement projects
 Equipment review
 Chart reviews
 Community projects such as smoking cessation
 Providing education
 Coaching and mentoring staff
 Facilitating process changes
 Improving the quality of nursing care
 Performing system analysis
 Conducting cost benefit analysis
 Advancing evidence-based practice
 Preventing injuries, medical errors, and infections
 Reducing readmissions
 Ensuring patient safety
 Investigator or co-investigators on research projects
 Create, review or revise policies, procedures, or protocols
 Reducing medical complications in hospitalized patients
 Reducing hospital costs
 Reducing length of stay
 Improving pain management practices
 Increasing patient satisfaction
 Improving nurse retention
 Reducing frequency of ED visits
 Criterion 4. CNS Curriculum 4-2. The CNS program requires a minimum of 500
supervised clinical (clock) hours for master’s and post-graduate preparation.
 CNS students must have an opportunity to practice the CNS role in settings related to the
population/focus area and, if appropriate, specialty of the program under the supervision of
a CNS faculty member and/or a qualified CNS preceptor. “Clinical (clock) hours” refers to
hours in which the student implements the CNS role in one or more of the Three Spheres of
Influence.
 Focus at USI is adult/gerontology with the roles of the CNS
National Task Force on the Guidelines for Clinical Nurse Specialist Education (2011).
NURS618 Advanced Health Assessment
• 45 hours of clinical
NURS 645 Adv. Nursing Assessment &Intervention I
• 150 hours of clinical
NURS 646 Adv. Nursing Assessment & Intervention II
• 150 hours of clinical
NURS 647 Adv. Nursing Assessment & Intervention III
• 200 hours of clinical
NURS 645 offered in fall semester
• 50 hours with NP or MD
• Can bank 24 hours with CNS toward NURS 647
• Didactic with tests
NURS 646 offered in spring semester
• Can bank 36 hours with CNS toward NURS 647
• Didactic with tests
NURS 647 offered in summer semester
• 10 weeks
• Review for CNS certification examination
• Complete CNS synthesis project
 Each student is required to secure their own preceptor.
 The USI graduate handbook contains answers to more FAQ regarding class and
clinical. You are expected to read and abide my the policies. Pay attention to the
section on contracts and affiliation agreements.
 Clinical agreements available USI.edu>>>Nursing and Health
Professions>>>Academic Programs>>>Master of Science in Nursing>>>about the
clinical experience>>>packet.
 http://health.usi.edu/acadprog/nursing/msn/clinicals.asp
 Documents in pdf format for ease of printing.
 Initiation request for USI affiliation agreement.
 Preceptor Agreement form
 Preceptor site survey.
 Forms that are illegible, incomplete, or contain abbreviations (such as
CCHC) will NOT be processed.
 All agreements with the preceptor, agency, and university MUST be
submitted to administrative assistant Kim Sullivan kmsullivan@usi.edu
 All agreements with the preceptor, agency, and university MUST
be submitted to administrative assistant Kim Sullivan
kmsullivan@usi.edu
 The student’s responsibility to confirm the Affiliation Agreement
has been accepted.
 You are responsible to maintain currency of Background check.
 NO clinical time can begin UNTIL all paperwork is
processed and approved.
www.nacns.org