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Nursing field requires new approaches
Health care systems are in a constant state of change. This complex environment is demanding more of the members of the nursing profession as restructuring and reorganization of hospitals often results in a decline in hours of nursing care, and decreased lengths of patient stay leaves only the sickest and most dependent patients in the hospital.
Common concern for quality health care and patient outcomes include:
- Medication errors
- Patient falls
- Skin breakdown
- Nosocomial infections
- Mortality rates
The field is shaping a new care-delivery model, the clinical nurse leader.
What is a clinical nurse leader (CNL)?
The clinical nurse leader improves the quality of patient care and better prepares nurses to thrive in the rapidly changing health care environment. Key functions include:
- Risk anticipation
- Information management
- Delegation and clinical supervision
- Inter-professional collaboration
- Shaping human, environmental and material resources (knowledge of systems, organizations and policies)
The role of CNL is different from the roles of RNs, clinical nurse specialists and nurse manager. Additionally, compensation for the master's-prepared nurse is generally 10-25 percent higher than that for RNs. The CNL:
- Designs, implements and evaluates patient care.
- Actively provides direct patient care in complex situations.
- Implements evidence-based practice and quality improvement strategies.
- Assumes accountability for patient care outcomes through the assimilation and application of research-based information.
Comparing clinical nurse leaders with clinical nurse specialists :
- CNL
- Generalist
- Manages and coordinates care for individuals at the unit level
- Implements evidence-based interventions
- CNS
- Communicates and coordinates care within the unit and across the hospital
- Develops evidenced-based interventions
- Advanced practice RN in a specialty
Comparing clinical nurse leaders with nurse managers:
- CNL
- Minimum of master's degree
- Direct patient care
- Nurse manager
- Minimum of baccalaureate degree
- Administrative and operational practices