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Clinical Nurse Specialists

Also called: Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist, Cardiology Clinical Nurse Specialist

Where in the military? In the military: see titles from the Air Force, Army, or Navy.

What they do:
Plan, direct, or coordinate the daily patient care activities in a clinical practice. Ensure adherence to established clinical policies, protocols, regulations, and standards.
On the job, you would:
  • Collaborate with other health care professionals and service providers to ensure optimal patient care.
  • Provide specialized direct and indirect care to inpatients and outpatients within a designated specialty such as obstetrics, neurology, oncology, or neonatal care.
  • Observe, interview, and assess patients to identify care needs.

Knowledge

Arts and Humanities
  • English language
  • philisophy and religion
Health
  • medicine and dentistry
  • therapy and counseling
Education and Training
  • teaching and course design
Math and Science
  • psychology

Skills

Basic Skills
  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • reading work related information
Social
  • looking for ways to help people
  • understanding people's reactions
Problem Solving
  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Abilities

Verbal
  • read and understand what is written
  • communicate by speaking
Ideas and Logic
  • notice when problems happen
  • use rules to solve problems
Attention
  • pay attention to something without being distracted
  • do two or more things at the same time
Visual Understanding
  • see hidden patterns

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include
leading, making decisions, and business.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Integrity
  • Dependability
  • Leadership
  • Self Control
  • Stress Tolerance
  • Adaptability/Flexibility

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Medical software
  • eClinicalWorks software
  • GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
Electronic mail software
  • Email software
Internet browser software
  • Web browser software

Education

Education: (rated 5 of 5)
master's degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Bright Outlook
New job opportunities are very likely in the future.
Salary
$65,950
per year, on average
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about clinical nurse specialists.