Clinical Nurse Specialist Career Jobs Description
How to Become Clinical Nursing?
A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who has
advanced education and clinical training in a health care specialty.
Recognized as expert health care providers, nurse practitioners deliver
basic health care for infants, children, adults, and families in a
wide range of outpatient and inpatient settings. Nurse practitioners
provide information people need to make informed decisions about their
health care and lifestyle choices.
Clinical Nurse Specialist focus particularly on health promotion and maintenance, disease
prevention, and diagnosing and managing acute and chronic illnesses.
Nurse practitioner care is individualized, focusing not only on health
problems, but also on the effects health problems have on people and
their families.
Among their varied roles, nurse practitioners take patient histories;
perform physical exams; diagnose and treat common acute illnesses and
injuries; provide immunizations; manage high blood pressure, diabetes,
and other chronic health problems; order and interpret lab tests; prescribe
medication and nonpharmacological therapies; provide prenatal care
and family planning services; and counsel patients on healthy lifestyles
and health care options. Many nurse practitioners also work as educators
and research scientists at schools of nursing, and are actively involved
in legislative activities and health care policy to promote quality
health care delivery for the nation.
Clinical Nurse Specialist practice under the rules and regulations of the Nurse Practice
Act of the state in which they work. Nurse practitioners can prescribe
medication in every state and in the District of Columbia. In 21 states
plus the District, Clinical Nurse Specialist can practice independently without physician
collaboration or supervision.
Many Clinical Nurse Specialist have their own practices and can be reimbursed by Medicare,
Medicaid, or other third parties.
Clinical Nurse Specialist have
developed extensive specialist knowledge about a specific area of medicine.
They generally have
an undergraduate degree or a Master of Science and work closely with
doctors
who specialise in the same area of healthcare.
Examples of the areas that a clinical nurse specialist might specialise
in include
pain management
HIV
breast feeding
haemophilia
burns
Many run clinics, and in the clinics they have personal contact with
patients and often have full responsibility for making decisions about
patients' care. Some also prescribe and monitor the effects of patients
medication.
When required, clinical nurse specialists share some of their specialist
knowledge with other nurses who might suddenly need to find out about
a particular topic. For instance, if an HIV patient appears in a hospital
ward, a clinical nurse specialist in HIV nursing might be brought in
to teach the ward nurses about that medical condition.
Clinical nurse specialists also help
ensure that national healthcare standards are put into practice locally,
and may contribute to developing
policies that govern
how patients should be cared for.
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