Clinical Nurse Leader Paper

Clinical Nurse Leader Role

Krishna Amin

Rush University College of Nursing

 Clinical Nurse Leader Role

Nurses make up a large population of the healthcare field, they can directly impact the quality and outcomes in care of a patient. The nursing field utilizes many different avenues of leadership, practice and patient care, in addition to being applicable in numerous settings and environments. A nurse can practice in public health, health promotion, direct patient care and co-ordination of care (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2010).  With the many roles, settings and implications of nurses, it is always important to address the primary goal of improving patient care outcomes. The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) role exemplifies the aims of improving patient care outcomes and will prove to be an essential role in the ever changing healthcare system.

What is a Clinical Nurse Leader?

            A Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) is a masters educated, highly skilled clinician who is well versed in leadership, quality of care and inter-disciplinary collaboration (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2007a).   Their tasks can range from direct patient care to establishing and implementing quality initiatives.  A CNL can be implemented in any healthcare setting and can work with an interdisciplinary team to increase patient outcomes. They utilize evidence-based practice in order to ensure patients are receiving the latest healthcare advances (AACN, 2007b).

            As a leader in their setting, CNLs are not limited to administration or management, they can participate in direct patient care.  They act as a provider and manager of care, and follow through with coordination of care for a patient (AACN, 2007a). They assume responsibility and accountability throughout the planning, implementation and evaluation of care.  Their fundamental role includes promotion of evidence-based practice in their setting, client advocacy, management of patient care, health promotion, risk reduction services in a population, and much more (AACN, 2007b).  According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2007), the CNL takes on many leadership roles, for example, care manager, life-long learner, clinician, outcomes manager and educator.

CNL Verses BSN

A CNL is a highly skilled clinician and their education varies from traditional bachelor’s trained nurses.  Their master’s level education focuses on higher order critical thinking, implementing and evaluating the scientific process effectively, and increased communication skills to engage in interdisciplinary relationships efficiently (AACN, 2007a). While a baccalaureate trained nurse has immense critical skills thinking and skilled care levels, their curriculum has not allowed for increased opportunities to gain competencies similar to a CNL. A CNL is also well training in leadership skills, they have learned to adopt positive attributes of different leadership styles in order to successfully adapt to different scenarios (AANAC, 2014). 

 The utilization of the CNL role, accommodates a recommendation by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), they recommend that education levels be increased for nurses in order to accommodate the ever changing healthcare system (IOM, 2010). There is an increased need for care of patients with complex issues, leadership roles for nurses, and identifying evidence-based practice measures to be utilized in direct care (IOM, 2015).  The CNL curriculum also focuses on addressing healthcare macro- and micro-systems. This allows CNL’s to identify quality initiatives that would be relevant to increasing patient outcomes. A CNL curriculum builds on baccalaureate nursing skills, solidifying the clinical foundations and furthering enhancement of leadership and critical thinking (AACN, 2007a). This allows for increased patient advocacy, greater patient outcomes in relation to disease management and enhanced communications with other healthcare professionals. The modern day healthcare system demands the nursing role be adapted to its ever-changing landscape, and a response to said change is the utilization of the Clinical Nurse Leader.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2007a). White paper on the education and role of the clinical nurse leader. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/white-papers/ClinicalNurseLeader.pdf

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2007b). Clinical nurse leader frequently asked questions. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/cnl/CNLFAQ.pdf

American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination (AANAC) (2014). Nursing leadership: Management and leadership styles. Retrieved from https://www.aanac.org/docs/white-papers/2013-nursing-leadership---management-leadership-styles.pdf?sfvrsn=4

Institute of Medicine. (2010). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health – Report Recommendations. Retrieved from http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12956&page=R1

Institute of Medicine. (2015). Assessing Progress on the Institute of Medicine Report - The Future of Nursing. Retrieved from http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/ AssessingFON_releaseslides/Nursing-Report-in-brief.pdf