The Difference Between a Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Nurse Practitioner
- Article by:Health Career Center
When it comes to specific Nursing roles, many individuals mistakenly believe that they all have similar job responsibilities. However, nursing allows for a variety of possible careers with various responsibilities and titles. So what’s the difference between a Clinical Nurse Specialist career and a Nurse Practitioner career? Let’s take a look.
What Does a Clinical Nurse Specialist Career Entail?
One of the few similarities between a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) career and a Nurse Practitioner (NP) career is the level of education needed. Individuals interested in either career must receive a Master’s of Science in Nursing degree. However, their studies have vastly different focuses.
A Clinical Nurse Specialist education focuses on a defined field of study like perinatal nursing, infectious disease nursing, or cardiovascular nursing for example. Because this role involves more managerial roles and responsibilities, CNS studies focus on case management, educational teaching skills, and various interdependencies that involve clinical practice. CNS students are then taught to function in one or more of the following areas:
- Patient management
- Clinically managing or directing the nursing staff of a large department or facility
- Organization management of the healthcare system
Once their education is completed, Clinical Nurse Specialists must pass the CNS certification program through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Interested individuals can also pursue certification specialties in Adult Health, Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health, Gerontology, Pediatrics, among others. To maintain this certification, CNSs must get recertified every three years.
Regarding job responsibilities, a Clinical Nurse Specialist often manages a specific department at a large hospital or facility by supervising and directing the Registered Nurses (RNs) in the department. Additional responsibilities include:
- Case managing an entire office; includes training and hiring new nurses and office staff
- Conducting research and acting in a consulting role for patients and fellow medical staff by providing expert-level information regarding patient care or treatment
- Leading nursing staff through educational components
- Improving patient care process and helping develop policies
- Overseeing the nurses’ station
- Consulting with physicians in their offices
- Assessing, planning, and intervening in complex cases by providing support to medical staff, patients, and their immediate family
- Providing direct care to patients in the department at times
How Do Clinical Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner Roles Differ?
Now that you’ve discovered what a Clinical Nurse Specialist career entails, here’s a look at how it differs from the Nurse Practitioner career.
The practice settings for these two nursing careers differs; Clinical Nurse Specialists work in a particular department wing in a large facility like a hospital, community health center, educational institution, or a mental health setting and Nurse Practitioners often work in a Doctor’s office or private practice setting where they operate with regulated autonomy.
Another major difference is the type of job responsibilities each professional has. While CNS specialize in managerial responsibilities, NPs are providing primary patient care. NPs responsibilities include seeing patients for annual checkups, making diagnoses, taking patient's medical history, performing exams, ordering lab tests, and treating and managing diseases and illnesses.
Prescriptive authority is another difference between a Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Nurse Practitioner. Nurse Practitioners have the authority to prescribe medication in all 50 states, while only 13 of these states allows NPs to prescribe medicine without the approval of a physician. CNSs have more limited abilities to prescribe medicine, however, this does vary by state. More specialized CNSs, like Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialists, have prescriptive authority in 36 states.
The Job Outlook for Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners:
Given the shortage of medical professionals in the U.S., the job outlook for both Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners looks bright as the demand for medical professionals continues to rise.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of Nurse Practitioners, along with Nurse Anesthetists and Nurse Midwives, is projected to grow by 31 percent from 2014 to 2024. The Nurse Practitioner career also offers a competitive salary given the median annual salary for current NPs falls around $98,190.
The future for CNSs also looks very promising with 19% more jobs expected by 2018, according to the Nurse Journal. The median annual salary for CNSs currently sits at $81,952, but professionals with more experience can make up to $117,781, according to PayScale.
When deciding which career to pursue, interested individuals should identify what type of setting they would like to practice in, which job responsibilities they feel they would excel at, and how much autonomy they prefer to work under.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a Clinical Nurse Specialist or a Nurse Practitioner, browse HealthCareerCenter.com today for various available employment opportunities for both Clinical Nurse Specialist positions and Nurse Practitioner positions.