Press Room

Toolkit Features Business and Cost Analysis Instruments to Better Quantify CNS Contributions to Health Care

Philadelphia, Pa. – In today’s health care environment initiatives to improve patient care and safety must take cost savings into account, and thanks to their unique advanced practice nursing role care clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) are prepared to assess, analyze and improve the business of health care while prioritizing the patient. To help CNSs translate their value and impact in the clinical setting, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists Practice Committee created the Cost Analysis Toolkit to help CNSs employ key business and cost analysis strategies to better describe and quantify CNS contributions to health care.

The Cost Analysis Toolkit includes:

• A checklist describing a Six Sigma process to guide CNSs in a cost analysis change strategy,
• An extensive literature review with assessment and grading of each articles and direct access to resources; and
• A thorough FAQ.

Clinical nurse specialists are licensed advanced practice registered nurses who have graduate preparation (master’s or doctorate) in nursing and advanced level competencies that meet the increased needs of improving quality and reducing costs in today’s health care system. CNSs work across the spectrum of care and their practice is focused on a specialty area, for example critical care, oncology, diabetes, pain management or cardiology. A recent nationwide survey, conducted by NACNS, found that CNSs spend most of their time providing direct patient care (22 percent), teaching nurses and staff (20 percent), consulting with nurses, staff and others (20 percent), leading evidence-based practice projects (14 percent) and assisting other nurses and staff with direct patient care (12 percent). There are more than 72,000 clinical nurse specialists.

“The focus on improving health care quality while reining in costs is the highest priority in today’s health care environment,” said NACNS President Vince Holly, MSN, RN, CCRN, CCNS, ACNS-BC. “Our new Toolkit will provide clinical nurse specialists with the critical skills to measure and demonstrate their value to the broader health care system through cost reductions and avoidance, shorter hospitalizations and fewer complications. This valuable new resource will help every clinical nurse specialist showcase the ability to prioritize the needs of patients and families while helping hospitals and health systems improve quality and reduce unnecessary costs.”

The members of the 2016-2017 NACNS Practice Committee and authors of the Cost Analysis Toolkit are:

• Chair: Anita White, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, Clinical Nurse Specialist Medical Intensive Care Unit at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio;
• Board Liaison: Yvonne Dobbenga-Rhodes, MS, RNC-OB, RNC-NIC, CNS, CNS-BC, CPN, Maternal-Child Health Clinical Nurse Specialist at Washington Hospital Healthcare System in Fremont, Calif.;
• Sarah Barry, RN, CNS-BC at Southern Coos Hospital in Brandon, Ore.;
• Martha J. Biddle PhD, APRN, CCNS, Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.;
• Tamera Brown MS, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN, Clinical Nurse Specialist Wound Ostomy and Continence Care at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Ind.;
• Stacy Jepsen MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Med/Surg/Neuro Critical Care at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Jordan, Minn.;
• Deborah Messecar, PhD, MPH, AGCNS-BC, RN, Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore.;
• Patricia Rosier, MS, RN, ACNS-BC, Surgical Clinical Nurse Specialist at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.; and
• Jerithea Tidwell RN PhD, PNP-BC, PCNS-BC, NICU Clinical Nurse Specialist at Children’s Medical Center – Dallas in Dallas, Texas.

The Cost Analysis Toolkit is available for a small fee, $10 for NACNS members and $50 for non-members. Purchase and download it here.