The clinical nurse specialist, clinical nurse specialist/nurse practitioner and other titled nurse in Ontario.

This study examines the preparation, employment and functions of nurses with titles of clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, and others whose scope of practice exceeds that of the staff nurse. Two established categories of nurses were identified, the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and the Clinical Nurse Specialist/Nurse Practitioner (CNS/NP). A third category was called Other Titled Nurse (OTN) because of the lack of uniformity in the position descriptions. Surveys were distributed to 379 health service agencies, 33 educational institutions and 204 members of the RNAO Clinical Nurse Specialist Interest Group. This article is based on the responses from the health service agencies and discusses issues pertaining to advanced practice nursing from an administrative perspective.