The Role and Practice of Clinical Nurse Specialist in Nigeria

Although the clinical nurse specialist was recognized as an expert practitioner in the United States for 50 years, there is an absence of a framework for the clinical nurse specialist role in Nigeria. There are three pathways through which the federal government, state government, and private sector provide specialist education and training for nurses in Nigeria. Nurses who have received graduate education should practice to the full extent of their education and training. Also, nurses who have their practice expanded in the treatment of communicable diseases and reproductive, maternal, newborn, and childcare should be appropriately recognized. This chapter explores challenges to developing the clinical specialist nurse role in Nigeria and the extent to which the clinical nurse specialist role is evolving in Nigeria through specialist education and training for nurses. Regardless of the pathway, setting, or specialty, Nigerian nurses may have achieved many clinical nurse specialist core competencies without a formal master’s education. Hence, Nigeria is long overdue for the development, recognition, and legal inclusion of the clinical nurse specialist role and practice in the career structure of nurses at all levels of the Nigerian health system.