Clinical Nurse Specialist Training Courses

Here is a sample list of courses from a typical clinical nurse specialist training program:

• Concepts in Integrated Health Care: Integrated health care courses provide students with information on the fundamental concepts and theory related to nursing practice across the life span. 
   
• Pharmacology in Advanced Practice: Advanced pharmacology courses teach clinical nurse specialists information about pharmacological treatments and disease response, major drug classes and their side effects, and basic microbiology principles.
   
• Bioethics: In a bioethics course, CNSs study ethical decision-making models and how they apply to nursing. Other concepts these courses might cover are conflict resolution and the importance of patient advocacy in the nursing profession.
   
• Nursing Research: CNS programs typically require nursing research courses that cover general theory, design, qualitative and quantitative measurement theories, as well as data collection, critical analysis, and other research-related clinical nurse specialist information.
   
• Instructional Theory and Teaching Practicum: As expert clinicians and researchers, clinical nurse specialists make strong teachers. Standard clinical nurse training programs will include the following courses:

• Instructional design, theory and delivery
• Learning theories
• Curriculum development and implementation

• Theory and Practice in Your Specialty: In general, nursing schools take a tiered approach to teaching a discipline, starting with classes that discuss theory and practice, and moving into more in-depth training about the population or health condition relevant to a particular specialty.
   
• Clinical Practicum: Clinical nurse specialist training programs involve a certain number of hours spent treating actual patients. Each state has its own requirements for the number of clinical hours CNSs must complete before they can practice.

In addition to standard MSN programs, many nursing schools offer RN-to-MSN programs, a direct entry MSN option for non-nurses who hold a bachelor's degree in another field, and post-master's certificates for nurses who want to demonstrate their expertise in a particular nursing area.

Designed to make advanced practice nursing education more broadly accessible, these clinical nurse specialist training programs give nursing students the chance to earn their credentials in a condensed period of time.

^{Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010; Loma Linda University's School of Nursing; University of Illinois at Chicago.}