Clinical Lead Job Description

Clinical Nurse Leaders: A Challenge for Advanced Nursing

People considering a career as a clinical nurse leader should be problem-solvers with strong critical thinking abilities. They should be motivated to change the healthcare outcomes of patients. CNLs are patient-facing, so they should be good at communicating and enjoy interacting with patients and other healthcare staff.

Clinical nurse leaders need to hold an active and unencumbered RN license, as well as an MSN in Clinical Nurse Leadership, to be eligible for the clinical nurse leader certification. The American College of Colleges of Nursing's Commission Nurse Certification is an arm of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and is used by candidates for clinical nurse leader positions. The clinical nurse leader is an important role in advanced nursing.

Clinical Leadership in Health Care: The Case for Australia

Clinical leadership is not exclusive to any particular professional group within the health care system, and all members of the health care team are identified as potential leaders. It is easier to consider what constitutes poor ineffective clinical leadership when there is a standard definition of what constitutes effective clinical leadership. It is important to understand that clinicians who are self-regulated and independent, who operate with a level of independence from typical employer–employee relationships, and who have lower levels of commitment to the institution, are not necessarily employees of the hospital.

Hospitals are complex socio-political entities and the ability for engagement and leadership among clinicians can be hampered by power dynamics. The tension between clinical and administrative discourse is evident in the findings from the evaluation of clinical directorate structures in Australian hospitals, with close to two thirds of medical and nursing staff surveyed reporting the primary outcome of such structures was increased organizational politics. Edmonstone35 cautions that the emphasis on competency-based leader development has done little to foster effective clinical leadership in the UK, despite its potential usefulness.

The Clinical Project Manager

The clinical project manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the activities of personnel involved in clinical research projects to make sure they are in line with general clinical goals and objectives. The manager is in charge of the management of the trial and the selection of vendors so as to guarantee the safety of patients, non-breaching of contract, procedures, and data integrity. The manager in charge of clinical projects must make sure that required resources are available for any given project and that they can resolve any issues that may arise during the project's execution.

Innovation and Interdependency in Health Care

As health care professions focus on their discipline specific knowledge base, there is less time to teach and learn interdependence-based skills. The need to quickly solve complex practice issues, such as when a fatal medication error occurs due to a flaw in the process or poor communication, will cause a dynamic tension at the point of care. The interplay of evidence-based practice with ingenuity is essential to address and solve clinical practice problems in multi-disciplinary teams. The concepts of innovation and interdependency are core concepts that can be used to inform clinical leadership development, education, and practice.