Abstract
This article reports on the design of a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) education program using National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) CNS competencies to guide CNS program clinical competency expectations and curriculum outcomes. The purpose is to contribute to the development of an empirical base for education and credentialing of CNSs. The NACNS CNS core competencies and practice competencies in all 3 spheres of influence guided the creation of clinical competency grids for this university's practicum courses. This project describes the development, testing, and application of these clinical competency grids that link the program's CNS clinical courses with the NACNS CNS competencies. These documents guide identification, tracking, measurement, and evaluation of the competencies throughout the clinical practice portion of the CNS program. This ongoing project will continue to provide data necessary to the benchmarking of CNS practice competencies, which is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of direct practice performance and the currency of graduate nursing education.