Skills and attributes required by clinical nurse specialists to promote evidence-based practice.
OBJECTIVE
The purposes of this article were to describe the challenges that clinical nurse specialists (CNS) face in their role and to examine how CNSs describe the skills and attributes that are needed to promote the use of evidence-based practice (EBP) in their workplaces. This article is based on findings from a dissertation regarding how CNSs promote EBP in a western Canadian province.


METHODS
A sequential explanatory participant selection mixed-methods design was used for this study.


METHODS
The study took place in a western Canadian province that has a population of 1 million people, with 42.7% of the population residing in the 2 largest cities.


METHODS
The sample was drawn from a provincial registered nurse database. The sample for the survey was 23, and for the interviews, there were 11 participants.


METHODS
The telephone survey contained 113 questions grouped into several subcategories. SPSS 18 was used to analyze the survey data. The semistructured interviews were conducted face to face, transcribed, and reviewed for recurrent themes. Interpretive description was used to analyze the themes.


RESULTS
The major challenges faced by CNSs are role strain, lack of support and resources, and role ambiguity. The skills and attributes required to be a CNS are graduate preparation, clinical expertise, and people/communication skills.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical nurse specialists can improve patient outcomes by promoting EBP; to do so, they need to work in supportive contexts that give those in the CNS role a set of clear role expectations.


CONCLUSIONS
There are challenges faced by CNSs in Canada, and there is a need to strengthen the CNS's role by standardizing the regulatory requirements at a national level.
College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada. diane.campbell@usask.ca
T Diane
TD
Campbell
Joanne
J
Profetto-McGrath
D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012525:Saskatchewan; D013041:Specialties, Nursing; D055815:Young Adult