Abstract
A recent survey of clinical nurse specialist (CNS) programs found significant differences among the programs in the number of classroom and clinical hours required and some variation in curricular content. To address these differences, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) developed Guidelines for Clinical Nurse Specialist Education and charged the Education Committee of NACNS with testing and refining them. This article describes the methods used by the Education Committee to test and refine the Guidelines and presents the finalized document. The 18 Guidelines provide quality indicators for CNS programs in the areas of organization and faculty, program admissions, curriculum, clinical resources and experiences, and program evaluation. NACNS recommends that these Guidelines be used in addition to accreditation standards to evaluate CNS programs and to guide development of new CNS programs.