Professional Development of a Clinical Nurse Specialist - Essay Example

APN Professional development plan Introduction Delivery of effective care in a health care system demands an increment in the level of education and competency for the nurses to conform to the dynamic health care conditions. However, a nurse must maintain the knowledge of the basic nursing requirements and procedures, which would act as entry requirements to an advanced profession in nursing. It is important to identify that an advancement in nursing profession within a particular area of specialty gives a nurse an opportunity to provide an in-depth skills and knowledge in response to situations that might arise from the profession. It is evident that there are emergent trends in nursing practice and education that necessitates an in-depth understanding the nature with which the emergent in trends can be accommodated. In this regard, this paper will explore the professional development of a clinical nurse specialist as a means of understanding the intrinsic importance of an advanced practice nurse. Clinical nurse specialist scope of practice A Clinical nurse specialist (CNS) is at an advanced level of practice and registration. CNS is a specialty achieved after attainment of a master’s or a doctorate from a program that offers the specialty. A Clinical nurse specialist has a specialized role in linking the patient, the nurses and the system, thus ensuring efficient management and coordination of activities within his or her area of practice. A Clinical nurse specialist has a primary goal of ensuring environmental modulation that ensures nurses within the clinical areas attain the development of a caring and an evidenced-based practice as a means of offering quality nursing interventions (Elsom, Happell, & Manias, 2006). A Clinical nurse specialist after completion of his/her training program becomes a specialist in the diagnosis of conditions in the clinical area and can provide accurate medical and nursing diagnosis. The specialist focuses on the patient and the family, management of the nurses and administration as integral roles in his or her practice to offer motivation and guidance to other nurses within his/her area of operation. A Clinical nurse specialist operates in multivariate environments including the hospital, community health clinic, mental health facility or in educational institutions. The specialist equally operates with different population of clients offering services as well as in home care settings. In the United States, licensing of CNS is available through the American nurses credentialing center after a successful completion of at least a master’s degree with a satisfied compliance with professional codes of conduct and ethical considerations (Finkelman, 2013). In accordance with the new protocol for the certification of the CNS, as of January 1, 2014, Clinical nurse specialist has to recertify through the American nurses credentialing center every five years. Eligibility for recertification is met after a CNS completes a minimum of 150 hours of continuous education with the 51% of the hours being in a specialty other that the chosen specialty and 25 hours being spent on pharmacotherapeutic education. Working in a collaborative environment, the training program for the CNS purposes to enhance collaboration among the specialist to ensure that the CNS are equipped with necessary skills to act as supervisors of other nurses as well as supervising doctors and other specialists. This is an indication that the training program of the CNS offers adequate amount of managerial studies. Working in a clinical practice setting, a CNS has an opportunity to influence quality of patient care by application of either direct or indirect tactics. Through the application of direct tactics, a CNS can provide mentoring ability to influence efficiency in the facility (Kilpatrick et al., 2013). Nevertheless, CNS is equally faced with challenges in their practice. Challenges like role definition make overlapping of duties between CNS and other specialists inhibiting the flow of work. Equally, CNS is faced with a challenge of moving evidence into practice, though this is a problem that can be concurred; it relies on the environment setting where a specialist practice. The problem can be overcome through collaboration with other stakeholders in the facility as a means of ensuring there is available of sufficient recourses that would aid in moving of evidence into practice (Baldwin et al., 2007). Personal assessment Based on personal understanding and appreciation of the nature of nursing I uphold, I have a strong belief that clinical specialty nursing is an important aspect of nursing that warranty commitment and dedication of more nurses. In relation to the training of nursing impacted on me, I feel I have good managerial quality as a result of much favor I bestow upon transformational leadership that would act as an important aspect for a CNS. Working with the transformational leadership that appeals to me most, I believe it would be significant to the motivation of nurses and other specialists in the provision of quality nursing services. Being a good team player, I find teamwork and team coordination as some of my core strengths that could help in propelling me to achievement of professionalism in CNS. Team coordination in accordance with my perception involves integrating all members of a team in decision making so that each member of the team will be appreciated to the quality work produced. Equally, time management is a quality that I believe could help me in the achievement of the objectives required of a CNS. I am a good manager of time that could favor in allocations of tasks in a timely manner to ensure efficiency and professionalism while working as a CNS. Nevertheless, I am a slow adopter to changes that would act as a weakness in the operation as a CNS. The advanced professionalism requires early adopters to conform to dynamics in nursing services; this could act as a hamper to my development in the professionalism. Working as a CNS, my main goals and objectives would be to ensure quality deliverance of nursing and medical services in a timely manner. This would be achieved through a collaborative work in a manner that ensures application of a nursing model that would best fit the situation in relation to availability of resources. Additionally, I would strive to maintain the ethical standards in the delivery of health care services to ensure that the patients are well protected and advocated. Networking and marketing strategies A clinical nurse specialist can operate in a different environment including in the hospital setting, research centers as well as in nursing education institutions. This thus makes the specialty one of the lucrative specialty in nursing in terms of career opportunities. In the local environment, organizations like the American nurses association and the American nurses credentialing center advertise position for CNS, who collaborate in ascertaining the quality of nurses and the training programs for other CNS’s. On an international platform, the specialty in CNS is in demand by the world health organization as personnel who help in strategizing and planning implementation programs for the world health organization services especially in the developing countries (Mayo et al., 2010). The advertisements for the career opportunities for the clinical nurse practitioners are mainly achieved through the internet sources and websites of the relevant organizations that are in demand of the specialties. Additionally, the networking for the advertisement in the positions are linked through the training institutions where the CNS’s practice and in various hospitals and centers where they practice. Attributes of a CNS To effectively operate as a CNS, a nurse must develop abilities and skills like in scientific foundation. Scientific Foundation is a competency that requires the nurse to develop skills in critical analysis of data for provision of evidence meant to improve the quality of nursing practice. Leadership ability is also a skill that a nurse must develop to practice effectively as a CNS. Leadership skills involve concrete decision-making with the aim of instigating favorable changes into the system. Acquisition of practical skills is equally essential for a CNS. This ensures that the nurse is capable of offering primary nursing services to the client in addition to management of other nurses and health care team for the provision of services. Technical skills are important in ensuring that the specialist can demonstrate the required standards to be achieved for the provision of services (Mckee, 2009). Conclusion Advance practice nurse is an important personality in the dynamic face of health care. Qualifying as a clinical nurse specialist is one of the achievements and progression in the field of nursing that ensures the profession conforms to changes in the health care system. The specialty offers nurses an opportunity for advancement to a level that allows coordination of nursing services with other medical services in a collaborative manner to ensure the provision of quality health care services. References Baldwin, K. M., Lyon, B. L., Clark, A. P., Fulton, J., Davidson, S., & Dayhoff, N. (2007). Developing clinical nurse specialist practice competencies. Clinical Nurse Specialist CNS, 21, 297–303. Elsom, S., Happell, B., & Manias, E. (2006). The clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner roles: Room for both or take your pick? Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 24, 56–58. Finkelman, A. (2013). The clinical nurse specialist: leadership in quality improvement. Clinical Nurse Specialist CNS, 27, 31–5. Kilpatrick, K., DiCenso, A., Bryant-Lukosius, D., Ritchie, J. A., Martin-Misener, R., & Carter, N. (2013). Practice patterns and perceived impact of clinical nurse specialist roles in Canada: Results of a national survey. 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