The Impact of COVID-19 on the Global Nursing Workforce.

Skilled nurses are critically important to an effective pandemic response.

Strategies to Promote Nurses' Engagement in Clinical Research: Description of Two Nurse Scholar Programs.

Innovative programs are needed to build a pipeline of future nurse scientists necessary to generate practice-based evidence for optimal healthcare and to address the serious shortage of PhD-prepared nurses. This paper describes two nurse scholar programs based in one large, Magnet® designated healthcare institution that aim to provide clinical registered nurses (RNs) with mentored research opportunities in order to ultimately build an internal pipeline of practice-based nurse scientists. The Clinical Nurse Scholar Program provides clinical RNs the opportunity to conduct a research study under the mentorship of a senior nurse scientist. The Nursing Research Scholar Program provides a clinical RN enrolled in a PhD program or who recently completed a PhD program with an opportunity to gain enhanced research training and acquire new research skills. These two scholar models have the potential to be replicated in other institutions to enhance the development of future nurse scientists and to address a critical national shortage of PhD-prepared nurse scientists.

Transition to Nursing Academia: A Positive Experience.

The global nursing shortage has affected nursing faculty, as well as clinical nurses. Nurses practicing in the clinical setting are often recruited into vacant faculty positions. Educational training or experience may be lacking in recruited clinical nurses, which may contribute to the stress of transitioning into the faculty role. The scientific literature is fraught with negativity surrounding the transition experience into nursing academia. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews of eight clinical nurses who transitioned successfully into baccalaureate nurse educators. Four common themes were revealed, including Mentoring and Support, Collaboration, Camaraderie, and the additional Positive Aspects of flexibility, independence, and giving back to the next generation. This information will be valuable to nurses who are transitioning or considering moving into academic roles from clinical nursing positions. Academic nursing departments will also find the information valuable in the pursuit of healthy work environments and potential retention strategies for novice nurse educators. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2019;50(8):349-354.].

The Advanced Practice Clinical Nurse Specialist.

The clinical nurse specialist (CNS), one of the 4 advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) categories, has a unique role to play in contributing to high-quality patient care and system-level change across multiple health care settings. CNS practice requires advanced knowledge and skills, including specialty expertise, the ability to integrate new knowledge and innovation into the system of care, the ability to consult and collaborate with all health professions, and the mentoring of nursing staff to support and fully implement that new knowledge. The purpose of this article was to describe the role of the CNS, explain the background of the CNS role as it relates to APRN practice, provide current CNS workforce statistics, and share opportunities for hospitals and health systems to strategically use CNSs to advance patient and organizational goals.

The Nurses who Specialise in Savings.

Specialist nurses are far from just the 'icing on the cake' - in inflammatory bowel disease alone they are consistently preventing emergency attendances and ensuring the most appropriate use of services.

Capacity Building through a Professional Development Framework for Clinical Nurse Specialist Roles: Addressing Addiction Population Needs in the Healthcare System.

The impact of substance use disorders on the Canadian healthcare system is large, contributing to high use of hospital resources. At the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada's largest mental health and addictions academic teaching hospital, substance use disorders constitute the primary diagnosis of 31% of annual inpatient admissions. Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) with expertise in addictions are ideally prepared to promote competency development among baccalaureate-prepared nurses who are caring for this population. Despite recent advocacy to advance the addictions nursing workforce in Canada, recruitment of graduate-level CNSs in this field remains a challenge owing to a shortage of candidates with addictions expertise. Healthcare organizations specializing in substance use treatment must use innovative professional development strategies to foster nursing leadership that addresses the complex needs of this clinical population. In this paper, we describe the implementation of an innovative competency-based professional development framework designed to build capacity of CNSs at CAMH.

Increasing the Number of Oncology Nurses Serving on Boards

Nurses have knowledge about quality, safety, and the patient experience that is valuable to governing boards. In 2011, the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommended that nurses be prepared and enabled to lead change to advance health care. Five years after the recommendation, work toward this goal is still needed.
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A passport to better care.

Having worked as a healthcare assistant (HCA) for almost 20 years, Lorraine Ramnath found training to become a nurse at the Open University gave her a new insight into patient care.

£2.5m for specialist nurses in Scotland.

An online campaign has helped secure an additional £2.5 million for specialist nurses in Scotland and double the number of nurses caring for patients with motor neurone disease.

Protecting an endangered species: the contribution and constraints of nurses working in a specialist role.

AIM: The project aims to assess current specialist practice in relation to the new and ever-changing healthcare climate and explore some of the issues that specialist nurses encounter. BACKGROUND: The current financial recession is driving a range of economic policy changes and consequently service provision, in particular the work and impact of nurses working in a specialist role, being examined. This has resulted in many specialist nurses feeling very vulnerable. METHOD: A cross sectional survey was completed by nurses working in specialist roles (n = 96) in a large health and social care setting in the United Kingdom. FINDINGS: A response rate of 62% was achieved: 44% provide nurse led clinics and 42% are nurse prescribers. The mean length of time qualified as a registered nurse was 27 years. Less than a third felt that the current computer system for activity recording reflected their current workload and 65% needed administrative support. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the insufficient resources available to specialist nurses resulting in inappropriate but necessary, use of time and restricted opportunities for learning and development.

Clinical nurse specialist - a serious shortfall in numbers.

There is a shortage of between 120 and 214 multiple sclerosis (MS) specialist nurses in the UK and some have caseloads of almost double the recommended number of patients.