The National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) celebrates CNS Week during the first week of September, in honor of Dr. Hildegard Peplau, Ed.D., RN (1909 – 1999), who established the CNS role. Sep. 1 is her birthday. The CNS role has been in existence for 65 years with nearly 90,000 CNSs currently practicing in the United States. This year’s theme is dedicated to the subject of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) 2022 Annual Conference, RISE of the CNS.
CNSs are advanced practice registered nurses who have graduate preparation (master’s or doctorate) in nursing. Like other advanced practice registered nurses, they are trained in physiology, pharmacology and physical assessment in addition to their areas of specialty. AUSON has two clinical nurse specialists, Dr. Morgan Yordy, assistant clinical professor and Jadalyn Story, clinical associate. Yordy’s role as a CNS began in a hospital, focusing on hospital policy and staff development. After a few years, her focus shifted to the community and academic settings, which allowed for further exploration into the impact of a CNS in the community setting. Story assists in undergraduate clinical placement. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in nursing practice, working on a project focusing on increasing mobility in hospitalized Geriatric patients.
The clinical nurse specialist has been a part of the health care industrial complex in the United States for more than 60 years. Through the decades, the profession has become widely accepted in the health care system as a standardized, licensed, and fully regulated health care occupation, and one that significantly impacts the nation’s economy by providing safe, low-cost, and effective evidence-based health care services.
CNS work in a wide variety of health care settings, providing diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing management of patients. Their role is defined by population (such as pediatrics, geriatrics, women’s health); setting (such as critical care or emergency room); disease or medical subspecialty (such as diabetes or oncology); type of care (such as psychiatric or rehabilitation); or type of problem (such as pain, wounds, stress).
A review by J.M. Gordon, J.D. Lorilla and C.A. Lehman (in the digitalcommons.unl.edu) demonstrated that the CNS is multidimensional as an independent licensed provider, expert clinician, consultant, and educator. Specialists in the United States have consistently documented outcomes including improved quality of care, decreased costs, and improved patient satisfaction. Health care in the United States needs individuals prepared to be agents of change, to improve current processes and outcomes, and to promote an environment of ongoing interprofessional assessment and improvement of health care delivery processes.
AUSON celebrates this week with Yordy and Story!
