Partnering to Improve Outcomes: The Nurse Executive and the Clinical Nurse Specialist

The chief nurse executive (CNE), chief nursing officer (CNO), and nurse leaders are accountable for high quality, reliable, interprofessional health care. The responsibility to achieve superlative outcomes and fiscal performance is enormous. Nurse leaders must apply advanced leadership skills to promote, facilitate, and ensure evidence-based practice (EBP) drives patient and population outcomes.1 The perspectives of CNEs and CNOs on EBP implementation and prioritization were examined in a descriptive study by Melnyk and colleagues.2 They reported significant gaps in the CNE/CNO prioritization of EBP compared to “top priorities” of quality and patient safety as well as limited allocation of resources to establish and imbed EBP. Quality and safety cannot be priorities without EBP.