What is a Clinical Nurse Specialist?

What is a Clinical Nurse Specialist?

Educators first developed the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) role because of their concern for improving nursing care. They believed that improvement was dependent upon increasing expertise at the bedside, giving direct and indirect care, and incorporating role modeling and consultation

The role of a CNS has evolved to include many specialties particularly in psychiatric care. The impressive development of this masteral program helped to initiate the other CNS specialty courses. Thus, clinical specialization in graduate education increased tremendously. Graduates would provide a high level of specialized nursing care and serve as change agents in hospital settings.

A good portion of time is spent in the hospital, in both staff and patient/family education. A clinical nurse specialist is also into developing protocols, standards and pathways that will guide nursing practice. A CNS also serves as a direct care provider, educator/consultant, researcher and leader. Areas of focus can encompass adult, pediatric and obstetric patients. Different medical departments like oncology, the cardiopulmonary system, the pulmonary system and others are also included.

What are the competencies attributed to a CNS?

• In-depth knowledge expertise
• Demonstrating clinical expertise in a selected area of clinical practice.
• Can be emulated by others professionally and personally.
• Serving as practitioner/teacher, consultant and researcher.

The past years had seen the influx of the greatest percentage of APNs as clinical nurse specialists. In order to achieve this specialization, one should prepare for a graduate nursing education program. This is primarily hospital based and can be consultative in nature.

Who enrolls in the University of Phoenix Online Nursing Programs?

Who enrolls in the University of Phoenix Online Nursing Programs?

Some think that online education is a totally individual or isolated effort. With the University of Phoenix Online Nursing Programs, this is hardly the case. The school implements teamwork where virtual teams of students interact and get to work with each other for projects.

Aside from any one student submitting his assignment, he is also encouraged to work with others in a team for a certain course-long project. The University of Phoenix (UoP) promotes teamwork skills by building collaborations among team members regardless of their location.

Most of the students targeted by the UoP for its online education programs are adults that have been working for around 5 years already. These people have been quite focused on their current careers for some time, and now they are considering pursuing their education by enrolling online.

The classes are designed so that the students are not required to attend on set times or schedules. This way, the UoP will be able to assist people in advancing their education despite their hectic work schedules. But not to be misunderstood, the UoP requires the enrollees to log in four times every week to participate in the classes or discussions. Assignments will also have to be posted every week. The flexibility lies in the fact that the students get to choose their own days and time.

People who usually take any of the University of Phoenix Online Nursing Programs are:
– Those who are in the health care industry already and would like to advance their careers
– Those who would like to continue their nursing education to pursue the career
– Those who are shifting careers or industries

Standards of Professional Nursing

Standards of Professional Nursing

Historically, nursing has been there and will continue to be there not only to meet the needs of the client, but also to assist in meeting the needs of friends and families. This means that a professional nurse learns to deliver care artfully with compassion, caring and a respect for people. No one factor differentiates a job from a profession, but the difference is important in terms of how professional nursing is practiced.

As a science, nursing is based upon a body of knowledge that is always changing with new discoveries and innovations. It is an exciting time to become a nurse. Registered nurses in a nursing role specialty, work to influence decision-making bodies to improve patient care, health services and policies.

Professional nursing provides leadership in the practice setting and profession. Professional nurses work to create and maintain healthy work environments in local, regional, national or international communities. They display the ability to define a clear vision, associated goals and a plan to implement and measure progress. Interaction with peers and colleagues to enhance one’s professional nursing practice and performance is encouraged.

The standards of this profession describe a competent level of behavior in activities related to quality of care, performance appraisal, education, ethics, collaboration, research and resource utilization. They provide a method to assure clients that they are receiving high-quality care, that the nurses know exactly what is necessary to provide nursing care, and that the measures are in place to determine whether the care meets the standards.