Description

At Stanford Health Care, every role contributes to a legacy of hope and innovation. If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact, we encourage you to explore this opportunity and discover your best future with us.

1.0 FTE | Full-Time. Day - 10 Hour

The Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) is an advanced practice nurse who serves as an expert clinician, educator, consultant, researcher, and leader within a specialized area of nursing practice. The CNS provides direct patient and family care while partnering with interdisciplinary teams to advance clinical practice, improve patient outcomes, and support nursing professional development. Working across the patient, nursing practice, and organizational spheres, the CNS promotes evidence-based care, drives quality and performance improvement initiatives, mentors nursing staff, and facilitates system-wide change to enhance the delivery of safe, high-quality care across Stanford Health Care. The CNS is accountable to nursing leadership and plays a key role in developing clinical competencies, integrating best practices, and fostering professional growth among nursing teams. 

A Brief Overview

The Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) is a direct care clinician who also collaborates with members of the health care team to enhance patient care by developing and supporting nursing staff and providing care to patients and families within an identified specialty.

This model describes the CNS's practice competencies within three spheres of influence: the patient/client, nursing and nursing practice and the organization/system sphere with the patient being the most important sphere. The CNS's clinical expertise arises from competencies inherent within a specialty of nursing practice and are used to address nursing issues within the patient/client, nursing and nursing practice, and the organization/system spheres. The essential roles of the CNS: expert clinician, interdisciplinary consultant, educator, researcher, and leader help to:

1. Provide direct patient and family care,
2. Direct specialty knowledge and skill acquisition,
3. Shape core competencies of clinical practice,
4. Promote evidence-based outcome-guided nursing care,
5. Integrate quality patient care across SHC practice sites,
6. Promote promoting an environment of mentoring and system change that empower the nurse to experience professional growth and development.

The CNS is accountable to and evaluated by a Nursing Administrator at the Director, Nurse Manager, or Clinic Manager level.
This job description covers all classifications for CNSs within the organization. All CNSs must meet all elements of the Essential Functions, Qualifications, and Supervision. There is a voluntary Career Ladder for CNSs who are interested in promotions for clinical expertise and contributions to the institution as well as the profession.

What you will do

• The essential functions of the clinical nurse specialist are derived by the CNS Core Competencies delineated by the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS, 2010). The Core Competencies are listed below.
• Direct Care Competency:
  • Direct interactions with patients, families, and specialty patient populations to promote health/well-being and improve quality of life. Care is provided with a holistic perspective in the advanced nursing management of health, illness, and disease states.
  • Conducts advanced comprehensive assessments of patients, families, communities and social systems using evidence-based techniques
  • Formulates and prioritizes differential diagnoses based the needs of each individual.
  • Develops evidence-based clinical interventions and systems to achieve defined outcomes.
  • Recommends therapeutic interventions and treatments to meet the needs of patients, families, and specialty patient populations
• Evaluates and treats patients with acute, and chronic health complaints as well as health maintenance concerns related to specialty according to written standardized procedures Obtains complete histories and performs pertinent physical exams with assessment of normal and abnormal findings on new and return patients, according to written standardized processes Performs or requests and evaluates diagnostic studies as indicated upon evaluation of the patients, according to written standardized procedures Administers and orders medications Orders and collects specimens for routine laboratory tests, screening procedures and therapeutic procedures, including blood and blood products.
• Systems Leadership:
  • Manages change and empowers others to influence clinical practice and political processes both within and across systems. Facilitates, leads, and evaluates system change to improve health outcomes and foster evidence-based practice.
    Identifies variables that influence nursing practice and patient care outcomes.
  • Provides leadership through the use of advanced communication skills to improve patient outcomes.
• Consultation: Provides specialized expertise to consult on patients, staff, and systems-focused problems. Using the consultation process implements and evaluates evidence-based practice changes within a clinical specialty.
  Provides consultation to staff nurses, physicians and to other health care professionals on patient care issues.
  Communicates consultation findings to healthcare team, and identifies resources to improve patient care outcomes.
• Collaboration:  At an advanced level, collaborates by committing to authentic engagement and constructive problem-solving to optimize clinical outcomes for the patient, family, system, and patient population.
• Effectively communicates and interacts with patients, families, staff and members of the community from diverse backgrounds.
  Facilitates the collaboration between providers and coordination of community resources.
• Coaching: Provides skillful guidance and teaching to advance the care of patients, families, groups of patients, and professional nursing. Uses coaching and advanced communication skills to facilitate the development of effective clinical teams.
  Promotes professional development of staff nurses and continuing education activities.
  Contributes to the advancement of the nursing profession as a whole by disseminating outcomes of CNS practice through presentations and publications.
• Research:  Evidence based practice underlies all aspects of the CNS role and incorporates analysis, application, and evaluation of research/evidence related to a clinical practice specialty. Mentors nurses to translate research into practice.
  The CNS role allows for independent and/or multidisciplinary involvement in research within a supportive clinical environment.
  Publication or presentation of evidence-based outcomes or research findings.
  
  

Requirements

Licenses and Certifications

• California Registered Nurse (RN) license
• California Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) license
• American Heart Association Basic Life Support (BLS) certification
   

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Cellular Therapy, Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT), and/or Hematologic Malignancies is highly desirable.
• Candidates with expertise caring for patients undergoing cellular therapies, stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy, and other complex oncology treatments are strongly preferred, given the specialized clinical, educational, and quality oversight responsibilities associated with these patient populations.