Clinical Nurse Specialist Careers: What It Takes

Clinical nurse specialists generally divide their time between patient care, research, teaching, consulting and management. These areas of responsibility include the following daily tasks:

• Working with nursing staff to optimize patient care, which may involve consulting with patient care managers, evaluating current practices, analyzing alternatives, and educating nursing staff on new procedures
• Fostering teamwork among health care staff
• Deciding how to best allocate resources and staff within a given health care environment
• Examining patients to evaluate their specific health issues and developing specialized care plans based on those evaluations
• Providing education for patients and their families on how to best manage their conditions
• Reviewing patient data and tracking outcomes
• Collaborating on new research

If you're interested in nursing, but suspect you'd have more fun analyzing best practices and optimizing patient care systems than plunging head first into day-to-day patient care, a clinical nurse specialist career may be for you. Research top schools, and start your search today for a nursing program to help you become a clinical nurse specialist.
_{Sources:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010
MayoClinic.org, 2010
University of Texas - School of Nursing, 2007}