The primary care clinical nurse specialist. Director of a hospice program?

In summary, hospice is a form of primary health care that developed along with the nurse practitioner-clinical specialist movement in the 1970s as a response to fragmented, impersonal health care. Both movements experienced similar steps of role development and stand today at the beginning of a new era with financial reimbursement possibilities. The role of the primary care clinical nurse specialist as a leader in the distribution of that care is very compatible with the hospice team concept. Utilization of the clinical specialist as director would keep hospice within nursing's field of health care, enhance the caring image of hospice, and maintain the focus on the patient's need in dealing with death and dying.