Abstract

The membership of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, in partnership with its practice partners, has initiated a national effort to create a new nursing role that is more responsive to the realities of a complex technologically advanced, ever-changing healthcare system. This new role is the clinical nurse leader. Nurses in this role will be prepared at the master’s level and will act aslateral integrators of care, patient advocates over the many components of the continuum, and information manager to the multiple disciplines involved in care. Practice and education partners are working together to define the curriculum for this role and create a new care delivery model needed to maximize the skills of the clinical nurse leader and the other team members to achieve better patient outcomes. In this department, the authors present a patient scenario using tracer methodology and delineate the role and functions of the registered nurse, clinical nurse leader, clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, and other members of the interdisciplinary team. With the introduction of a new nursing role, the clinical nurse leader (CNL), multiple questions about the benefits, potential outcomes, overlap, and fit of the role in a nursing unit and organization are being posed. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the CNL functions ‘‘as a generalist providing and managing care at the point of care to patients, individuals,

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