Delve in to the world of the clinical nurse specialist. In this episode we brought together a panel of clinical nurse specialists from around the country to talk about this advanced practice nursing path. Joining us today are Martha Gurzick, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Pediatrics at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland, Ann Mayo, Professor at the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, and Peggy Wellman a Nurse Manager at CDH Proton Center in Illinois.
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Interviews with Martha Gurzick, Ann Mayo and Peggy Wellmann
Jamie Davis: I’m excited to have the two of you here to talk about clinical nurse specialists and advanced practice nursing in general and I know a little bit of our discussion earlier. Ann, you brought up that clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners are seen as peers as advanced practice nurses. Would you like to talk a little bit about what the similarities or differences are between what you will consider a nurse practitioner and a clinical nurse specialist?
Ann Mayo: Well, sure. I’d also like to add to that list that certified registered nurse anesthetists as well as nurse midwives are also advanced practice nurses. In the United States we have actually four categories of advanced practice nurses. States will regulate the practice of advanced practice nurses. In some states advanced practice nurses obtain licenses to practice. In other states, they’re certified. There are a few states that don’t regulate the practice of some of their advanced practice nurses and that does apply to some CNS in a few states across the United States. But in terms of practice, generally, across the US there are actually four categories. I think the CNS and NP are probably paired together most frequently because we – in both groups have the opportunity to provide care and give access to care to diverse population of patients anywhere from newborns all the way up to geriatric – very frail, elderly older persons. Because of that, I think the CNS and NP can sometimes be confused with each other. The NP provides direct patient care. To contrast that to the CNS, the CNS not only provides direct patient care but they also consult with other nurses who might need their expertise and they work in systems whether it’s clinical systems or hospital systems on very large evidence-based practice projects to roll those out, to improve the quality of care. As a result the NP, because they see patients and provide direct patient care, can see a broader spectrum of patients. So, for example, they could be in a primary care clinic. They could see newborns all the way to older adults all the daylong in their practice. For instance, the clinical nurse specialist, the key word here is “specialist.” Because the clinical nurse specialist has these other spheres both patient, nursing, and systems sphere that they operate in – they have a more narrow specialty. You may find CNS who specialized in geriatric nursing, who specialize in cardiovascular nursing, who specialize in pulmonary nursing. Like Martha, Martha specializes in pediatric nursing.
Jamie: Martha, how does being a clinical nurse specialist in your facility help you provide a unique type of care for your patients?
Martha Gurzick: I’m in a great position to really bring the evidence to the bedside and assist the nurses in really providing great quality care so that we have good patient outcomes. That’s essentially my goal. I’m in a unique situation where there’s pretty much a clinical nurse specialists on each of our units.