Anyone know what happened to the CNL?

Nursing Students Post Graduate

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Specializes in Med surg, cardiac, case management.

Haven't heard much about it lately.

It was of interest to me...I'm a new MSN, but I don't really have any great desire to go the NP/CRNA route. I've been looking for more specialized stuff that still focuses on the bedside, and I remember reading about the CNL in school.

But I haven't heard anything about it since.

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Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

I'm in a CNL program and graduate this December. Right now I am working on a QI improvement project on a maternity unit at a local hospital.

What specific questions do you have that I can try and help with?

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

The CNL is a certification searching for a purpose, which wasn't helped by initially being paired with masters-entry programs.

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Specializes in Med surg, cardiac, case management.
I'm in a CNL program and graduate this December. Right now I am working on a QI improvement project on a maternity unit at a local hospital.

What specific questions do you have that I can try and help with?

Just curious what the programs are like, and what people do with the certification later on.

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Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

I am shoulders deep in my QI project right now. Up until this point our program was largely focused on the general nursing courses/clinicals needed for us to pass the boards.

The program has been pretty intense. Its an accelerated, 2 year program with hardly any time off (we went summers too). While taking the basic courses, we did have courses in theory, research and leadership. And we have this big QI project that is our equivalent to a Masters thesis. But this is the homestretch and it feels good.

What am I going to do with the certification...well lets see if I pass the CNL exam first. I sit for it Dec. 15. Honestly speaking though, I only have immediate plans to work as a staff RN (once I get hired that is....I passed the boards this summer, but being as that I am currently 5 months pregnant, I doubt I'll get hired any time soon). Eventually, after I get some real experience under my belt, I may matriculate into the role.

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It's always good to get additional education...but....degrees like MSN/CNL that don't specifically translate to revenue generation for a hospital are somewhat risky. I have worked at a place that went with the trend and hired several CNLs but as soon as the economy got a little shaky they fired all of them. They said the expense wasn't justifiable.

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No facility in my entire region is using CNLs except the one VA hospital (and they have a limited number of positions, of course). The VA system has apparently made a national commitment to utilize CNLs but, other than that, I haven't heard much about the role catching on. The CNL appears to be a role that was invented by academia without any great outcry from the larger healthcare community about a need for Master's-prepared generalist nurses at the bedside.

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Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.

working as a CNL or not, I will still have my MSN. That there is a huge asset. I am not expecting it to pay off right away, but somewhere in the future yes, I do.. And having it will be of use when I want to further my education even more.

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I personally think that the use of the word 'leader' in the title was the biggest mistake. New grad CNLs come into bedside nursing as a complete newbie and work under RN's that have 400 years experience and it just sets the scene for conflict and acrimony. Why help someone that claims to be a leader?

The hospital here that runs a CNL program is now having problems with assimilating it's own graduates successfully into bedside positions. Human nature 1 ..... Academia 0

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