title: The bright future for clinical nurse specialist practice.
abstract: This article discusses the past, present and future of Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) practice and education and identifies how 4 major shifts will impact CNS practice: 1) the APRN Consensus Paper, 2) the Affordable Care Act, 3) the Institute of Medicine's 'Future of Nursing' paper, and finally 4) the journey to Magnet status for many institutions. Each of these documents and/or themes has had, and will continue to have, a major impact on the future of CNS practice. The future is bright for CNSs as the role has an extremely important part to play in ensuring high quality patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Operative Care Division, VA Portland Oregon Medical Center, 3710 Southwest US Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA. Stephen.Patten@va.gov
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patten
authors.forename: Kelly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Goudreau
mesh_terms: D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D013041:Specialties, Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States