Clinical Nurse Specialist

Patient/Family Clinical Practice

• Demonstrates clinical expertise in the provision of high quality, age appropriate care within the designated clinical specialty.
• Counsels interdisciplinary team on specific specialty patient-family care issues.
• Collaborates with interdisciplinary team to integrate specific nursing interventions for a comprehensive plan of care or its revision to enhance patient-family outcomes.
• Provides/coordinates complex discharge planning/direct and indirect education/support groups, incorporating relevant cultural diversity and age appropriate content/techniques, as clinically indicated, for specific specialty patient-family health goals.
• Evaluates the effectiveness and outcomes of interventions individually and in collaboration with the interdisciplinary team.
• Intervenes in emergent clinical situations to provide appropriate solutions and limit recurrences.

Nurses and Nursing Practice

• Directs the provision of quality, age appropriate, cost effective patient-family nursing care delivery within the specialty.
• Utilizes/designs methods/tools to assess patterns of outcomes related to nursing practice within the specialty.
• Collaborates with nursing personnel to implement evidence based and innovative, cost effective interventions to improve specialty patient-family outcomes.
• Utilizes/designs methods/tools to assess knowledge, skills and practice competencies of nursing personnel to advance the practice of nursing within the specialty.
• Implements educational programs incorporating age specific information and targeting the competency needs of nursing personnel in order to improve nursing practice and specialty patient-family outcomes.
• Serves as a role model through directly providing, guiding, coaching, mentoring, supporting/evaluating nursing care activities.
• Identifies collaboratively the need for technological changes or clinical products incorporating evidence, clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness.
• Provides recommendations to nursing leadership regarding developments in the respective clinical specialty.
• Identifies nursing practice issues for evaluation/ research studies.
• Disseminates evidence based research outcomes for application to patient care and specialty patient-family needs.
• Presents/publishes regarding individual advanced practice clinical specialty.

Organization/System

• Demonstrates leadership skills within the context of the medical center and division/care center structure, mission, culture, policies, resources and goals.
• Develops/revises/implements evidence based policies/ procedures/guidelines/protocols/ best practices/ standards to improve specialty clinical practice.
• Designs/utilizes system level assessment methods/tools to identify and evaluate organization structures, facilitators, barriers, functions and timeliness of interventions impacting nursing practice and nurse sensitive, specialty patient-family outcomes.
• Utilizes interpersonal, organizational, communication networks and role relationships to problem solve and influence clinical decision making to improve patient care.
• Incorporates fiscal accountability and innovative strategies into planning for clinical projects and educational programs.
• Leads and collaborates with nursing and interdisciplinary team members in implementing cost effective, innovative patient care programs, solutions and change strategies which can be generalized across differing units, populations or specialty patient-family care issues/needs across the continuum of care.
• Participates in medical center quality improvement activities pertinent to the clinical specialty.
• Serves as a clinical resource in the identification, investigation and resolution of actual/potential risk management, quality of care or ethical issues.
• Implements processes to sustain evidence based changes in nursing practice, programs of care and clinical innovations.
• Implements strategies to reduce patient length of stay and resource consumption.
• Provides education to interdisciplinary team members pertinent to specialty patient-family health needs/goals as clinically indicated.
• Documents the outcomes of the impact of respective clinical nurse specialist practice on the organization/system.

Non-Clinical/Technical Competencies

• Customer Focus/Service Orientation: Meets patient/customer needs in timely, positive, and professional manner.
• Quality of Work: Work performed is consistently accurate and thorough and at the expected level.
• Problem Solving: Identifies and carefully assesses situation/information/data before taking action within scope of practice and/or licensure/certification.
• Time Management: Uses his or her time effectively and efficiently.
• Initiative: Takes timely and appropriate action in accordance with defined job responsibilities and operating within scope of practice and/or licensure/ certification.
• Dependability: Associate requires minimum supervision, carries through effectively on all work assignments; is reliable; usually present and on time.