Investigate the expanding role of clinical nurse leaders in healthcare facilities. These nurse leaders are working to implement change and improve patient outcomes in our healthcare system. I got the chance to join a panel discussion on clinical nurse leaders and clinical nurse specialists with Nina Swan, a Clinical Nurse Leader at Iredell Memorial Hospital in North Carolina, Cathy Coleman, clinical nurse leader and adjunct professor at University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professionals, and Peggy Barksdale, a clinical nurse specialist and vice president of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists. Here’s that segment.

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Jamie Davis:         Cathy, Nina, Peggy, I want to welcome all three of you to Nursing Notes Live and our discussion this month on Clinical Nurse Leaders and Clinical Nurse Specialists. So I’ll guess I’ll start with Peggy. Why don’t you go ahead and share with us a little bit about your background in nursing – why you wanted to become a nurse and your career path through school and what led you to where you are today.

Peggy Barksdale:      Thank you, Jamie, so much. Nice meeting you, Nina and Cathy. I started a long, long time ago. I received a nurse doll for Christmas one year. I got a Halloween costume and was in a play that had a nurse’s uniform. I really loved Science and Math. When I went looking for a school of nursing, my high school guidance counselor told me, “I faint at the sight of blood and I did not have the aptitude to be a nurse.” So I went and got my degree in Fine Arts, worked at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for less than a year. And I decided LPNs worked in doctor’s offices, so they probably wouldn’t have to deal with blood. I went through the LPN program. Yes, I did faint at my first clinical. It was a nosebleed. I got over that. I worked 15 years as an LPN in a hospital and loved hospital work. But I had encouragement from two Clinical Specialists. They told me, “Peggy, you need to go back. Get your RN and become a Clinical Nurse Specialist.” So I went back. Because I had a Bachelor from Indiana University, I did the transition LPN to ASN and then from there, I transitioned to the MSN program and got my master’s in Clinical Nurse Specialist, Adult Health. I loved it ever since.

Jamie Davis:         I’ll bet. That’s a great story. That’s really great. Nina, how about you? What was your reason for becoming a nurse and how you got to where you are today?

Nina Swan:          Well, as a child I was ill and one of the scopes that I had, endoscopy scopes that I had, I remember as they were probably giving me a little bit of medication. My nurse just being there holding my hand, looking down smiling at me and tell me everything was going to be fine. And I just thought, “Well, that’s kind of a cool job to have. Just to make everybody feel good.” And I also had given my grandfather his insulin shots when I was about 10 years old. So I really started knowing at a really young age that I was going to be a nurse. That was it. I went to LPN school, got my diploma, worked as an LPN and then went on to get my Associate’s degree level at the Technical College and then my Bachelor’s. I just enjoy the education side of – I look at every day that I’m learning something new, still today. Whether it’s learning something new about how my nurse at the bedside is critically thinking or she’s missing a piece of critical thinking. So I’m learning like the gaps and really paying attention to that. Actually, when the CNL role came along, I was working on a graduate studies for leader...