How to become a Clinical Nurse Specialist 2024

Clinical Nurse Specialist Direct nursing staff in the provision of patient care in a clinical practice setting, such as a hospital, hospice, clinic, or home. Ensure adherence to established clinical policies, protocols, regulations, and standards.

Clinical Nurse Specialist is Also Know as

In different settings, Clinical Nurse Specialist is titled as

Cardiology Clinical Nurse Specialist
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist
Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialist
ICU Clinical Nurse Specialist (Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist)
Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist
Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist
Psychiatric Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist
Trauma ICU Clinical Nurse Specialist (Trauma Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist)

Education and Training of Clinical Nurse Specialist

Clinical Nurse Specialist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Clinical Nurse Specialist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Clinical Nurse Specialist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Clinical Nurse Specialist

Training Required for Clinical Nurse Specialist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Clinical Nurse Specialist in different industries are

What Do Clinical Nurse Specialist do?

Coordinate or conduct educational programs or in-service training sessions on topics, such as clinical procedures.
Observe, interview, and assess patients to identify care needs.
Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of nursing practice or organizational systems.
Provide direct care by performing comprehensive health assessments, developing differential diagnoses, conducting specialized tests, or prescribing medications or treatments.
Provide specialized direct and indirect care to inpatients and outpatients within a designated specialty, such as obstetrics, neurology, oncology, or neonatal care.
Maintain departmental policies, procedures, objectives, or infection control standards.
Collaborate with other health care professionals and service providers to ensure optimal patient care.
Develop nursing service philosophies, goals, policies, priorities, or procedures.
Develop, implement, or evaluate standards of nursing practice in specialty area, such as pediatrics, acute care, and geriatrics.
Develop or assist others in development of care and treatment plans.
Make clinical recommendations to physicians, other health care providers, insurance companies, patients, or health care organizations.
Plan, evaluate, or modify treatment programs, based on information gathered by observing and interviewing patients or by analyzing patient records.
Present clients with information required to make informed health care and treatment decisions.
Instruct nursing staff in areas such as the assessment, development, implementation, and evaluation of disability, illness, management, technology, or resources.
Direct or supervise nursing care staff in the provision of patient therapy.
Identify training needs or conduct training sessions for nursing students or medical staff.
Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in nursing.
Monitor or evaluate medical conditions of patients in collaboration with other health care professionals.
Participate in clinical research projects, such as by reviewing protocols, reviewing patient records, monitoring compliance, and meeting with regulatory authorities.
Perform discharge planning for patients.
Prepare reports to document patients' care activities.
Write nursing orders.
Provide consultation to other health care providers in areas such as patient discharge, patient care, or clinical procedures.
Develop and maintain departmental policies, procedures, objectives, or patient care standards, based on evidence-based practice guidelines or expert opinion.
Design evaluation programs regarding the quality and effectiveness of nursing practice or organizational systems.
Design patient education programs that include information required to make informed health care and treatment decisions.
Lead nursing department implementation of, or compliance with, regulatory or accreditation processes.
Chair nursing departments or committees.
Teach patient education programs that include information required to make informed health care and treatment decisions.
Provide coaching and mentoring to other caregivers to help facilitate their professional growth and development.

Qualities of Good Clinical Nurse Specialist

Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.

Tools Used by Clinical Nurse Specialist

Alligator forceps
Angiocaths
Apnea monitors
Arterial blood gas testing equipment
Arterial line catheters
Automated external defibrillators AED
Automated medicine dispensing equipment
Autotransfusion systems
Backboards
Bedpans
Bilevel positive airway pressure BiPAP ventilators
Blood drawing syringes
Blood glucometers
Blood pressure monitors
Breast pumps
Bronchoscopes
Bulb syringes
Cardiac monitors
Cast carts
Cast cutting saws
Chest drains
Clinical trapeze traction bars
Crash carts
Crutches
Desktop computers
Diagnostic tuning forks
Digital patient thermometers
Doppler ultrasound equipment
Ear curettes
Electrocardiography EKG machines
Electronic compressor nebulizers
Electrosurgical cauterization machines
End tidal carbon dioxide monitors
Endotracheal ET tubes
Enema equipment
Enteral feeding sets
Epidural catheters
Evacuated blood collection tubes
Eye lavage kits
Fetal monitors
Fiberoptic endoscopes
Graduated glass laboratory cylinders
Handheld nebulizers
Hemodynamic monitors
Hyper/hypothermia blankets
Hypodermic syringes
Incentive spirometers
Incision drainage equipment
Intracranial pressure monitors
Intravenous infusion pumps
Intravenous IV administration sets
Intravenous IV cutdown trays
Intubation sets
Isolettes
Laceration repair trays
Lancets
Laptop computers
Magill forceps
Manual resuscitation bags
Mechanical intermittent positive pressure ventilators
Mechanical stethoscopes
Medical examination protective gloves
Medical gurneys
Medical scales
Microscope slides
Multiple lumen central line catheters
Nasal catheters
Nasal specula
Nasal suctioning equipment
Nasogastric tubes
Nasopharyngeal airways
Newborn warming lamps
Occlusion clamps
Ophthalmic slit lamps
Ophthalmic tonometers
Ophthalmoscopes
Oral suctioning equipment
Orthopedic splinting equipment
Ostomy equipment
Otoscopes
Oxygen concentrators
Oxygen delivery masks
Oxygen flowmeters
Patient restraints
Patient walkers
Pediatric crash carts
Pericardiocentesis kits
Pill crushers
Pill splitters
Pneumatic boots
Protective face shields
Protective gowns
Protective medical face masks
Pulmonary artery catheters
Pulse oximeters
Reflex hammers
Ring cutters
Ring forceps
Safety goggles
Sandbags
Skin staplers
Specialty patient care beds
Specimen collection containers
Sphygmomanometers
Straight hemostats
Straight surgical scissors
Surgical irrigation sets
Surgical razors
Surgical scalpels
Surgical staple removers
Suture removal kits
Swan Ganz artery catheters
Tablet computers
Telemetry monitors
Thoracentesis kits
Thoracentesis trays
Tongue blades
Tourniquets
Tracheal suctioning equipment
Tracheotomy sets
Traction weights
Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation TENS equipment
Transcutaneous pacemakers
Transfer boards
Transport cardiac monitors
Transvenous pacemakers
Ultrasound transducers
Umbilical catheters
Urinalysis test strips
Urinary catheters
Urine analysis equipment
Vaginal exam speculas
Venous oxygen saturation SVO2 monitors
Visual acuity charts
Wheelchairs
Wood's lamps

Technology Skills required for Clinical Nurse Specialist

Allscripts Professional EHR
Amkai AmkaiCharts
Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
Cerner Millennium
ChartWare EMR
e-MDs software
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Email software
GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
Medscribbler Enterprise
MicroFour PracticeStudio.NET EMR
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
NextGen Healthcare Information Systems EMR
Online medical databases
SOAPware EMR
StatCom Patient Flow Logistics Enterprise Suite
SynaMed EMR
Texas Medical Software SpringCharts EMR
Web browser software
Word processing software

US Universities

How to become Clinical Nurse Specialist in 2024