The clinical nurse specialist as a case manager in acute care

The role of the clinical nurse specialist continues to evolve. The clinical nurse specialist is viewed as an educator, change agent, researcher, consultant, caregiver, and, currently, case manager. At a nonprofit 250-bed acute-care facility in the Northeast, the role of the CNS is ill defined, and the CNS is considered part of the staff education department. Through a review of the literature and a personal interview with a clinical nurse specialist from the facility, a new role, the critical-care case manager will be defined as a proposed solution toward increasing the visibility and economic worth of the clinical nurse specialist.