Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialists Practice in the Outpatient Setting.

Abstract

With rapidly evolving oncology care, the role of the outpatient clinical nurse specialist is most valuable and essential. The purpose of this article is to describe the role of the clinical nurse specialist in the ambulatory oncology settings and highlight the clinical nurse specialists' unique influence across the spheres of impact. This article shares several contributions of an outpatient clinical nurse specialist, which include ways this role impacts nursing practice, patient care, and standardizing organizational guidelines. A method of recording the clinical nurse specialists' encounters or indirect consults was also utilized to provide a process to log consultation received in the day-to-day practice. Work exemplars were included to further demonstrate the impact of this role in this setting. Outpatient clinical nurse specialist need is rising especially in the oncology setting where the majority of cancer care and treatment is delivered. It is important to continue to disseminate and highlight the value it brings to the organization.