JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – How do you tackle the nursing shortage and patient care crisis when the number of nurses falls far short of those needed to work in the increasingly complex health care settings of the future? The answer: educate a new kind of nurse.
As part of a national pilot program, both the University of Florida College of Nursing and the University of North Florida School of Nursing will participate in educating that new kind of nurse, the Clinical Nurse Leader. UF will admit its first class of students in summer 2005 on both its Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses while UNF will begin its CNL program on its Jacksonville campus in fall 2005.
For today’s patients, the health care system is often a confusing maze. Fragmentation of patient care, complex technology and severity of illness contribute to patients’ frustrations with hospital and health care facilities. A series of reports in the past several years by bodies such as the Institute of Medicine, the American Hospital Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation confirm the need for a better educated nursing workforce and for reforms in health-care delivery overall. The reports state that while there is a need for more nurses to alleviate the shortage, simply increasing numbers of nurses will not address the critical problems in patient care.
National nursing leaders believe that the CNL role can address these issues and make significant contributions to improvements in health care.
The CNL provides the link between between the patient and the health care setting. CNLs will collaborate with the patient’s family members, seek consultation with other members of the health care team and serve as the patient’s advocate in the health care system. The CNL will be a source of emotional support, empowerment and knowledge for patients and their families. The CNL will be a resource to other nurses and health care providers.
In short, the CNL focuses on ways for hospitals and other health care facilities to provide the best possible patient care.
“Nursing education must attract and retain the best clinical nurses for our health care settings,” said Kathleen Ann Long, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., F.A.A.N., dean of the University of Florida College of Nursing. “The new CNL program will attract nurses who want to advance their knowledge and abilities while retaining a focus on direct patient care.”
The Clinical Nurse Leader will be a generalist clinician with a master’s degree and will effectively coordinate, manage and evaluate care for individuals and groups of patients. The CNL will function as a member of the client’s health care team and will bring a high level of clinical competence and knowledge to the point of care.
“We are losing nurses from the profession due to dissatisfaction and job burnout. The work environment is becoming more complex every day,” said Lilia Loriz, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the UNF School of Nursing. “There needs to be a major change in order to improve the current situation. The Clinical Nurse Leader program is looking at a workforce redesign and a change in how we are preparing nurses. It is a challenging and exciting endeavor and we are proud to be part of this pioneering effort.”
The national CNL pilot program was developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, in consultation with AACN members, nursing practice leaders, regulators and other health professions.
AACN nursing education leaders collaborated with nursing practice leaders to consider models for education and practice that would be patient-centered, cost-effective and quality-driven. The need for a new kind of nursing professional, the CNL, was identified as a result of this collaboration.
The CNL is a joint venture between nursing education and practice. Currently, UF’s five practice partners include Shands at the University of Florida, Shands Jacksonville, Malcom Randall VA Medical Center – part of the North Florida/South Georgia VA Health System – Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville and Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville. The UNF School of Nursing also is partnering with Shands Jacksonville, as well as St. Luke’s Hospital/Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and Flagler Hospital.
The colleges and their respective practice partners will participate in a national evaluation project to determine if newly-designed practice units incorporating the CNL role will result in desired improvements in patient care.
“Nursing leaders are seeking innovative and realistic ways to stabilize our workforce and to advance the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for nurses to remain competent and confident practitioners,” said Ginger Campbell, chief nursing officer at Shands Jacksonville. “By focusing on the CNL unit-based and patient-centered model of care delivery, we can expand the scope of nursing practice using credentialed nurses who demonstrate an astute ability to assess and treat patients and evaluate outcomes that are directly affected by nursing practices.”
Potential students for the CNL program are expected to be recent BSN graduates and experienced BSN nurses.
The CNL program will culminate in an intensive residency on model units at each of the college’s practice partner sites. These units will provide a new form of client care, one in which the CNL role is pivotal.
Graduates will be eligible to sit for the CNL national certification examination. Future plans for the CNL include a new legal scope of practice and professional license. AACN will assume leadership and engage appropriate stakeholders in these activities.
Those interested in the master’s CNL track at the UF College of Nursing should visit their Web site, www.nursing.ufl.edu or call (904) 244-5166 in Jacksonville or (352) 273-6366 in Gainesville. For the UNF CNL program, visit their Web site at http://www.unf.edu/brooks/nursing/bchcnl.html or call (904) 620-2684.