Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner: Distinct Advanced Practice Roles                                   

 


Like a morning fog, the issues surrounding the combination of the nurse practitioner (NP) and clinical nurse specialist (CNS) have been difficult to define and delineate. This website is created to clarify the confusion surrounding these advance practice nursing roles (APN). The combining of these roles would create a loss for the nursing profession and the public. The argument can be made that it is time to abandon the exploration of the blending of the role of NP and CNS. Instead educators and nurses should embrace advance practice nursing as a profession which would be strengthened and better served by the addition of advanced practice roles that are based on the needs of today's health care system. Keeping these roles as separate distinct entities meets these needs. 

There is evidence that the CNS practice is both cost effective and does improve patient outcome and safety (Cowen & Morehead,2006). There are many similarities between the practice of CNS and NP yet their focuses differ, creating the need for both roles in today's rapidly changing health care system. The CNS and NP have many similarities in their practices yet the amount of time spent in performing these activities differ (Cowen & Morehead, 2006). Please click on the above tabs to enter this website to discover the reasoning related to keeping these roles separate and the argument to blend the roles refuted.