The role of Clinical Nurse Leader CNL was first introduced in as the first new nursing role to be defined in more than 35 years. It was created out of necessity, born from an evolving healthcare system that required a well-defined nurse leadership role within the clinical environment.
Clinical nurse leaders, as their title implies, provide clinical leadership, implementing and evaluating patient care processes and models of care delivery. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing AACN , in collaboration with a number of other healthcare organizations, developed the CNL role in such a way that it contributes and fits seamlessly in any setting where healthcare is delivered.
Clinical nurse leaders are providers and managers at the point of care who are accountable for the outcome of patient care. The major job duties and responsibilities of CNLs include:. Online and part-time MSN-Clinical Nurse Leadership programs have become common, providing candidates with more options and more flexibility than ever.
What is a Clinical Nurse Leader? August 24, Marcy Vadurro Director of Product Marketing. See Nursing Degrees. What Exactly is a Clinical Nurse Leader? Clinical Nurse Leader Job Description To really understand what clinical nurse leader jobs are all about, it's worthwhile to consider a bit of history. Clinical Nurse Leader vs. Other Nursing Roles If you're considering getting a master's degree in nursing , you have a number of options. Nurse Practitioner A nurse practitioner is a type of advanced practice registered nurse APRN , a role that involves taking on certain duties that have traditionally been done by physicians.
Other APRN jobs include nurse midwife and nurse anesthetist. Clinical nurse leaders, on the other hand, don't hold APRN licenses. If you follow this path, you won't be performing more advanced medical procedures on patients.
Instead, you'll combine hands-on nursing with analyzing and improving the systems that affect direct care.
Clinical Nurse Specialist As the name suggests, clinical nurse specialists have particular areas of expertise that they bring to their role. They might specialize in pediatrics, emergency care, diabetes treatment, psychiatric care or pain management, among many other possibilities.
In a sense, a clinical nurse leader is just the opposite. Rather than honing in on one kind of patient, type of care or medical setting, if you work as a CNL, you'll be taking a wide view, looking at how cohorts of patients move through the system and seeing how each patient's care is affected by the interactions between various medical specialists, institutions, and external factors.
Nurse Administrator Nurse administrators are typically registered nurses RNs who move away from bedside care to take on more institutional responsibilities in a hospital or other healthcare setting.
Clinical nurse leaders use evidence-based practice to ensure that patients receive the best care. They make full use of the latest innovations in care delivery. Clinical nurse leaders are part of an interdisciplinary team of physicians, pharmacists, social workers, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists, all working together to plan and implement the most effective medical care.
As a clinician with expert practice skills and additional knowledge beyond the average RN, the role of clinical nurse leaders is unique and far-reaching. They work both within the clinical setting and outside of it in roles like:. Clinical nurse leaders work in a wide variety of different types of facilities and healthcare specializations, but their roles and responsibilities are remarkably similar across the spectrum.
Since CNL positions are still relatively new, you should bring a lot of flexibility to the table. Different organizations will structure the job differently, and you may also be engaged in related work like participating on safety and ethics committees, or acting in a managerial capacity.
The beauty of the job is that you can continue to define it in the ways necessary to protect patient safety. Not just anyone can step up into the CNL role. Even with years of experience, there is advanced knowledge that you need to really understand how healthcare systems fit together and how to improve clinical outcomes. The multi-faceted role of the CNL requires a multi-faceted education.
Any nurse can become a CNL. Most CNLs come to the field after gaining experience working as an RN, so your university education is probably going to be way back in the rear-view mirror by the time you start considering getting advanced training in clinical nurse leadership.
Your education at the graduate level will build on both the technical knowledge you built up as an undergrad as well as the practical, first-hand experienced you earned as a nurse. But there are many different paths you can follow to get that CNL education.
Each of them gives you the same essential coursework and preparation for the job. But all of them are aimed at nurses in different phases of their career with different entry points into the profession of nursing.
These different categories give nurses from all different levels of experience and clinical backgrounds a full range of options for getting the education needed to become a qualified CNL. In order to make it onto that CNC-approved program list, every CNL degree or post-graduate certificate has to include the right kind of coursework and experiential training to qualify.
Clinical nurse leadership programs are designed to build upon the direct-care nursing skills developed through an undergraduate degree program. Clinical nurse leader programs must prepare graduates to demonstrate achievement in the following core competencies:. Additionally, graduate-level content must include most CNL programs will offer this content in three, separate, graduate-level courses :. That kind of person-to-person training is key in developing the kind of skills you will need on the job.
All CNL education programs have to meet clear and extensive clinical experience requirements. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites.
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