title: Promoting a Strategic Approach to Clinical Nurse Leader Practice Integration.
abstract: The Office of Nursing Services of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) piloted implementation of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) into the care delivery model and established a strategic goal in 2011 to implement the CNL role across the VA health care system. The VA Office of Nursing Services CNL Implementation and Evaluation (CNL I&E) Service was created as one mechanism to facilitate that goal in response to a need identified by facility nurse executives for consultative support for CNL practice integration. This article discusses strategies employed by the CNL I&E consultative team to help facility-level nursing leadership integrate CNLs into practice. Measures of success include steady growth in CNL practice capacity as well as positive feedback from nurse executives about the value of consultative engagement. Future steps to better integrate CNL practice into the VA include consolidation of lessons learned, collaboration to strengthen the evidence base for CNL practice, and further exploration of the transformational potential of CNL practice across the care continuum.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Nurse Leader Implementation & Evaluation Service, Office of Nursing Services/Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Temple (Dr Williams); Clinical Nurse Leader Implementation & Evaluation Service, Office of Nursing Services/VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, Oregon (Dr Avolio); Office of Nursing Services, Veterans Health Administration, Washington, District of Columbia (Dr Ott); and UAB School of Nursing, University of Alabama, Birmingham (Dr Miltner).
authors.forename: Marjory
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Alice E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Avolio
authors.forename: Karen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: Rebecca S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Miltner
mesh_terms: D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D009718:Nurse Administrators; D009720:Nurse Clinicians / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D014481:United States