True Believers at the 2011 Clinical Nurse Leader Summit

By Maureen ‘Shawn’ Kennedy, AJN’s editor-in-chief, who is in Florida this week attending meetings and visiting local schools

It’s January and I’m in Miami (I know, I know). I just finished attending the CNL 2011 Summit (CNL = clinical nurse leader). It was a relatively small meeting, as nursing meetings go, with about 350 attendees who were CNLs, faculty or students in CNL programs, or chief nursing officers from clinical facilities employing CNLs. They were all believers in the value the role brings to clinical practice. There was an energy, an atmosphere of being in on a new and growing phenomenon.

Some background: the CNL is a relatively new role in nursing, first formally proposed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in 2003 after several meetings with other nursing groups concerned with nurses’ “education for practice” (see the white paper on the development of the role). CNLs function at the unit level, coordinating care, working with staff, focusing on improving outcomes.

Described as “master’s-prepared advanced generalists,” CNLs now number about 1,300, according to Mary Stachowiak (see photo), president of the Clinical Nurse Leader Association (CNLA). There are currently about 100 institutions with master’s programs preparing CNLs and about 1,800 CNLs in programs.

AJN carried a short news article back in October 2004 noting the creation of […]

2016-11-21T13:14:15-05:00January 26th, 2011|career|1 Comment

Clearing the Mind: Charles Kaiman, Nurse and Artist

Kaiman's "Self-Portrait," September cover

Charles Kaiman, a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatric mental health nursing at the New Mexico Veterans Affairs facility in Albuquerque, is also an acclaimed artist. This month we feature his work both on our cover and in Art of Nursing. In On the Cover, Kaiman offers thoughts on his painting technique, which he calls “a form of visual meditation,” and describes how it clears the mind.  If you’re in the New York City area in early October, come check out his show at the Blue Mountain Gallery at 530 West 25 Street in Manhattan, October 6 through 31. For more information, visit the artist’s Web site.

Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

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2016-11-21T13:22:12-05:00September 24th, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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