Clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner core curricula survey results

The American Nurses' Association's Council of Clinical Nurse Specialists and Council of Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioners conducted a survey of all graduate nursing programs in the United States that prepare nurse practitioners and/or clinical nurse specialists. One hundred eight schools responded (73.5 percent), yielding data on 317 programs that could be further analyzed. For the 60 NP and 195 CNS programs analyzed, information was obtained on the following: required courses, number of hours of the required courses, students' clinical training settings and graduates' employment settings. Findings revealed marked similarity between the core curricula of NP and CNS graduate programs. The only significant differences found were that NP programs placed greater emphasis on pharmacology, primary care, physical assessment, health promotion, nutrition and history-taking in their curricula. In both the student clinical settings and graduate employment settings, NPs focused on primary care settings while CNSs focused on secondary or tertiary care settings. Based on the marked similarities between the core curricula of NP and CNS graduate programs, it is suggested that further investigations be conducted to determine whether objectives and/or teaching methods differ, and to further investigate the effects of practice setting on role development. Further, it is suggested that NPs and CNSs continue to interact through forums and conferences to continue the evolution and definition of graduate nursing education and advanced practice.