CNL Program Applicant

Does your hospital use the CNL designation at all? I haven't seen much usage of the title but I've noticed one of our ICU's have designated some nurses as Clinical Nurse Leaders for the unit. They are senior nurses who didn't have to go to a specific CNL program nor have Master's degrees.

As a role being promoted by nursing, the specifics of what the CNL does is quite vague and very open to expansion into various roles that overlap with CNS, unit educator, case manager, etc. It seems to me like a niche role that hasn't quite gained some traction but again my anecdotal observations don't necessarily translate to reality in other areas of the country.

What is a CNL? | Clinical Nurse Leader Association

Agree with Juan - do your due diligence. If your hospital uses CNL what do they do? IMHO (only MY opinion) the CNL is the current flash in the pan. They have overlapping duties with many other MSN programs including CNS.

And...just an idea but if you can't bill for your services (like an APRN can do) you might want to consider that your job would be on the line during budget cuts.

Our system doesn't recognize the CNL in particular but it sets you up for promotion. They require BSN for charge nurse and MSN for nurse manager. One of our new grad nurses with CNL was precepting after one year charge nurse after two years and is interviewing for a nurse manager position at 4. This may be the exception but we've had very good luck with second career nurses with CNL.

I like the idea behind the CNL role and the MSN programs that prepare CNL's. I like it a lot and can imagine it being a great degree to set a nurse up for a variety of roles within a health care system. (e.g quality improvement, professional development, program coordination, etc.)

However ... I think the "powers that be" in the nursing schools that developed the programs made mistakes in trying to create a "job role" for health care facilities and then push it out into the world. It would be better for the students and for the world of practice if the world of practice would develop its own job titles and role descriptions. Then the CNL degree could be considered NOT just suitable for one role -- but as a good, general, graduate educational foundation for a variety of roles -- with maybe a little augmentation with continuing education credit or an academic elective or two.

This idea that there need to be 1:1 correspondence between every education program with a specific job role is simply inappropriate for a "real world" of practice that is constantly evolving and that includes dozens of roles/jobs that need nurses to fill. We have several jobs at my hospital for which a CNL would be an appropriate education, but none of those jobs are called CNL.