What do they do?
Direct nursing staff in the provision of patient care in a clinical practice setting, such as a hospital, hospice, clinic, or home. Ensure adherence to established clinical policies, protocols, regulations, and standards.
Also known as:
APN (Advanced Practice Nurse), Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS-BC), CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist), Critical Care CNS (Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist), Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialist (Emergency CNS), Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist (Gerontological CNS), ICU CNS (Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist), Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist (Neuroscience CNS), Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist (Pediatric CNS), Psychiatric Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist (Psychiatric Adult CNS), Trauma ICU CNS (Trauma Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist)
No Data Available
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3.4%
Change
Ranks #54 in job growth rate7,630Job Openings
Ranks #10 in net job growth
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- Bachelor's degree (54%)
- Associate's degree (26%)
- Master's degree (12%)
- Some college, no degree (4%)
- Doctorate or Professional Degree (3%)
- High school diploma equivalent (1%)
- Less than high school diploma (<1%)
Most Popular Majors that prepare Clinical Nurse Specialists
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#1
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Degrees Granted
252,542
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Female Students
219,224
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Male Students
33,318
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Median Starting Salary
$57,500
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#2
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Degrees Granted
15,152
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Female Students
13,207
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Male Students
1,945
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Median Starting Salary
$57,500
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#3
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Degrees Granted
9,196
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Female Students
7,937
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Male Students
1,259
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Median Starting Salary
$57,500
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#4
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Degrees Granted
7,992
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Female Students
7,117
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Male Students
875
-
Median Starting Salary
$57,500
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#5
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Degrees Granted
4,481
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Female Students
3,810
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Male Students
671
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Median Starting Salary
$57,500
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People in this career often have these skills:
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
People in this career often know a lot about:
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
- Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
People in this career often have talent in:
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
People in this career often do these activities:
- Treat acute illnesses, infections, or injuries.
- Collaborate with healthcare professionals to plan or provide treatment.
- Maintain medical or professional knowledge.
- Establish nursing policies or standards.
- Follow protocols or regulations for healthcare activities.
- Train medical providers.
- Evaluate program effectiveness.
- Evaluate effectiveness of personnel policies or practices.
- Collect medical information from patients, family members, or other medical professionals.
- Examine patients to assess general physical condition.
- Support the professional development of others.
- Monitor patient conditions during treatments, procedures, or activities.
- Evaluate patient functioning, capabilities, or health.
- Diagnose medical conditions.
- Prescribe medications.
- Develop procedures to evaluate organizational activities.
- Advise medical personnel regarding healthcare issues.
- Develop educational programs.
- Conduct research to increase knowledge about medical issues.
- Monitor medical facility activities to ensure adherence to standards or regulations.
- Develop medical treatment plans.
- Supervise patient care personnel.
- Manage healthcare operations.
- Communicate detailed medical information to patients or family members.
- Analyze patient data to determine patient needs or treatment goals.
- Teach classes in area of specialization.
- Prepare reports summarizing patient diagnostic or care activities.
This page includes data from:
Career data: O*NET 30.0 Database
by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (“USDOL/ETA”). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA
Occupation statistics: USDOL U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics
Videos: CareerOneStop, USDOL/ETA and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development
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