Nursing administrators' perceptions of critical care CNSs

Area of Science:

• Nursing Administration
• Clinical Nurse Specialist Roles

Background:

• Inconsistent perceptions among nursing administrators regarding Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) roles exist in the literature.
• Understanding these perceptions is crucial for effective role implementation and utilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey nursing administrators about the critical care CNS role.
• To identify perceived importance of CNS functions: expert clinician, educator, consultant/change agent, researcher, and manager.
• To compare perceptions between administrators who employ CNSs and those who do not.

Main Methods:

• Survey of 198 hospital nursing administrators.
• Assessment of current critical care CNS utilization.
• Evaluation of perceived importance of specific CNS role functions and activities.

Main Results:

• Administrators employing CNSs prioritized expert clinician, educator, consultant/change agent, and researcher roles, ranking manager as least important.
• Administrators not employing CNSs ranked expert clinician, educator, consultant/change agent, manager, and researcher in order of importance.
• Differences in role perception were noted between the two groups.

Conclusions:

• Nursing administrator perceptions of critical care CNS roles vary, particularly regarding the manager function.
• Employment status of CNSs influences administrator perceptions of role importance.
• Further research may clarify optimal CNS role integration based on administrative perspectives.