Implementing the Clinical Nurse Leader Role: A Care Model Centered on Innovation, Efficiency, and Excellence

Nurses must become full partners with other healthcare disciplines to become involved and take responsibility for identifying system problems. Nurses devise and implement improvement plans, track improvements over time, and make necessary adjustments as leaders who implement change and help improve the healthcare system.1 We are facing the dilemma of fragmented healthcare that can only be improved through “new innovative care delivery models…that address patient needs and wants, span sites of care, result in more efficient use of resources, and demonstrate measurable improvement in patient satisfaction and quality outcomes over time.”2 With the implementation of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) role, the innovation unit as developed at Rush Oak Park Hospital (ROPH) addresses current healthcare system concerns, such as the creation of more effective interdisciplinary care, point-of-care coordination, and the implementation of evidence-based practice findings.3