Lesser Recognised Important Roles of the Clinical Nurse Specialist

Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) is by their title clinicians in focus, and the literature emphasises this. However the CNS has many roles, the clinical, educator and researcher roles are frequently articulated but the CNS operates in many other roles also. These include the less articulated roles such as leadership, manager, consultant and change agent/innovator. These roles require functions and competencies, which often define the complete and complex CNS role. It is the competencies and personal characteristics that the CNS display and utilise in all these roles that allow them to function at a specialist level. Certainly, these roles and competencies are supported in the literature [1-5].