Filling Gaps in Practice Leadership: Succession Planning for Clinical Nurse Specialist Positions

To create a succession plan for clinical nurse specialist positions across multiple clinical settings.

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) had multiple clinical nurse specialist position vacancies. However, standard recruitment methods and a collaboration between human resources and nursing managers to expand the applicant pool yielded few applicants. A work group was subsequently commissioned to identify innovative ways to fill the vacant clinical nurse specialist positions. Guiding principles for hiring and implementing the role were developed.

During the 4-year project period (2016 through 2019), the time to fill positions decreased from 174 days to 83 days. Nurse managers and clinical nurse specialists reported an increased number of registered nurses seeking information about the profession. Twenty-eight clinical nurse specialist interns, titled clinical resource nurses, were hired, and 14 completed their graduate degree, obtained state licensure, and transitioned to clinical nurse specialist roles. Twelve clinical resource nurses were on schedule to transition to clinical nurse specialist positions, and 2 left their positions.

A succession plan that used clinical nurse specialists to mentor clinical resource nurses to fill gaps in practice priorities while completing graduate education was a successful strategy to fill vacant clinical nurse specialist positions.