Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)

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The Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) track prepares the professional nurse for advanced practice roles.

“Clinical Nurse Specialists are expert clinicians in a specialized area of nursing practice.

The specialty may be identified in terms of:

A Population (e.g. pediatrics, geriatrics, women’s health)
A Setting (e.g. critical care, emergency room)
A Disease or Medical Subspecialty (e.g. diabetes, oncology)
A Type of Care (e.g. psychiatric, rehabilitation)
A Type of Problem (e.g. pain, wounds, stress)

Clinical Nurse Specialists practice in a wide variety of health care settings.

In addition to providing direct patient care, Clinical Nurse Specialists influence care outcomes by providing expert consultation for nursing staffs and by implementing improvements in health care delivery systems.

Clinical Nurse Specialist practice integrates nursing practice, which focuses on assisting patients in the prevention or resolution of illness, with medical diagnosis and treatment of disease, injury and disability.” (National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, 2008)

Students graduating from the Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist track will be eligible for American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) certification examination for Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Student Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist track, graduates will have the knowledge and skills to:

Assume advanced nursing roles in clinical practice
Deliver culturally competent health care to diverse populations
Use epidemiological, social, and environmental data to draw inferences on the health status of clients
Design health promotion and disease prevention clinical programs
Evaluate nursing practice and organizational policies to produce quality outcomes
Demonstrate leadership in clinical practice
Use ethical decision making in relevant practice roles
Collaborate with other disciplines to achieve quality outcomes in nursing practice
Facilitate the use of evidence-based practice in nursing
Promote nursing as a profession and a discipline
Demonstrates scholarly inquiry through verbal and written communication in clinical scholarship

The Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist curriculum

Graduate Core: 12 cr. hrs.

Direct Care Core: 9 cr hrs.

Functional Area Core: Adult Health 18 cr. hrs.

NURS 505 - Seminar: Writing for Publication
NURS 524 - CNS Seminar: Professional CNS Practice (1)
NURS 526 - Adult Health Theory
NURS 527 - Practicum – Acute (150 clinical hrs.) (1 credit hours as didactic and 3 credit hour as practicum = 150 hours) (Pre-requisite of NURS 501 , NURS 502 , NURS 503 ,NURS 504 , NURS 520 , NURS 521 , NURS 522 ,NURS 526 )
NURS 528 - Practicum – Chronic (150 clinical hrs.) (1 credit hours as didactic and 3 credit hour as practicum = 150 hours) (Pre-requisite of NURS 501 , NURS 502 , NURS 503 ,NURS 504 , NURS 520 , NURS 521 , NURS 522 ,NURS 526 )
NURS 529 - Adult Health (Practicum of choice, 200 clinical hrs.) (1 credit hours as didactic and 4 credit hour as practicum = 200 hours) (Prerequisite NURS 527 AND NURS 528 )

Note(s):

* NURS 501 OR NURS 503 must be taken as one of the first courses in the program
* NURS 598 Scholarly manuscript completion: If the scholarly manuscript is not satisfactory completed at the time of course completion, students must enroll in NURS 598 (see policy )