title: Advanced practice in pediatric nursing: blending roles.
abstract: In the past, pediatric advanced practice nurse's roles were the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in the inpatient setting and the Nurse Practitioner (NP) in the outpatient setting. With health care system changes, such as the shifting and blurring boundaries between inpatient and outpatient care, changes were required in the graduate curricula to blend the CNS and NP roles into an advanced practice nurse (APN) role. This article describes the model at Rush University, the advantages of the CNS/NP blended role, the revised APN curriculum, and examples of blended-role APNs in action. The curriculum change to blend the CNS/NP roles addresses the need for the blended APN role in changing health care systems.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program, Rush University College of Nursing, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sperhac
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Strodtbeck
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D002641:Chicago; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000458:organization & administration; D007587:Job Description; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration