The clinical nurse specialist in Landspítali-University Hospital. What is the content of their work?

Abstract

In recent years advanced practice nursing has been evolving worldwide, thedevelopment being most advanced in the USA. Many countries are in theprocess of defining the role of advanced practice nurses and much has beenwritten and discussed about their role and suitable educational background.Advanced practice nurses have proved to increase efficiency in healthinstitutions and research has revealed fewer complications in patients, fewerin hospital days and lower costs where they work.Specialization in nursing has been available in Iceland for many years;the current act on specialists in nursing dates from 2003.The purpose of this research was to examine the content of the clinicalnurse specialist’s work at Landspítali University Hospital in the year 2008.The research was descriptive, 15 of the 19 CNSs working atLandspítalinn during the time of the study participating. Activity diarieswere used for data collection for 7 days.The results show that of CNSs relative work hours the largestproportion was spent on education, expert practice and institutional activitieswhile the smallest proportion went on research and job development. Aftereach day CNS´s evaluated how their background as a CNS had benefittedthem on a scale of 0 “did not benefit” to 10 “benefit greatly”. The averageevaluation over the study period was 8.7. The participants could register upto four separate activities performed during each fifteen minute period and in42% of cases the CNS´s performed from two to four activities in the timeperiod.These results show that the work of the CNS at LandspítalinnUniversity Hospital is very diverse and the results can be used in furtherdevelopment of their work at the hospital and elsewhere.