[SharonH, RN]

What do you think of these roles for nurses? I must confess that when I first read and heard of them, I was not happy and thought that they were a duplicating services that CNSs already provided.


Now I am changing a change of heart. Last semester, I precepted at a hospital that utilized nurse clinicians and this semester, there are none. The CNS in my current clinical spends an enormous amount of time teaching the nurses about simple procedures, sometimes on the spur of the moment, in addition to putting out fires on the floor with physicians, families and other hospital departments related to clinical stuff, documentation etc. She sometimes is called on to help with admissions and other floor stuff like putting in orders when things are busy. To be truthful, this is exactly what I thought CNSs did and it is what I expected to be doing.


However, like the CNS in my previous clinical, she also serves on several committees, is involved in hospital-wide inservices, teaching CPR and assessment classes as well as identifying trends of care, educational needs for her own floor, preparation for JCAHO, performance initiatives, audits and that sort of thing.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that she is doing the work of two people! NOW I see the value of a nurse clinician. What are your thoughts?

[HealthyRN]

I guess I'm still a little confused. Did you mean to say unlike the CNS in your previous clinical? I thought that CNSs also sat on committees. I don't really see the difference between a nurse clinician and a CNS. Can anyone help clear this up?

[SharonH, RN]

Originally Posted by katyosu2006

I guess I'm still a little confused. Did you mean to say unlike the CNS in your previous clinical? I thought that CNSs also sat on committees. I don't really see the difference between a nurse clinician and a CNS. Can anyone help clear this up?

No I'm saying that just like my previous preceptor, this one sits on committees and is involved in a lot of system level work, but she is also on the floor actively involved with staff and patient. At my previous clinical, the nurse clinician did a lot of the staff support and advanced patient care. The role of the nurse clinician and CNS overlap a lot but like I wrote, the CNS performs a lot of system level work whereas the nurse clinician does not. It is confusing and I didn't really get it myself until I got to this clinical and I saw how much work my current preceptor does.

[mayanne]

hi! im just new here! can you help me! i need to make an interview with anyone of you,,, who ever is a practical nurse or any kind of nurse kindly email me at may_anne_christel@yahoo.com i just need it please! its going to be a big help!