A new peer-reviewed white paper is calling for a bigger role for perinatal clinical nurse specialists in closing care gaps for women and newborns.
Released Wednesday by the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists during Perinatal Nurses Week, the updated recommendations call for CNS education programmes to include a perinatal focus and for professional certification so the role is recognised in regulation and can practise to its full scope as advanced practice registered nursing.
The association noted that undergraduate nursing programmes offer limited maternity experience and few graduates choose maternal health, even as demand for experienced perinatal care continues to grow.
Perinatal specialists, the paper argues, combine bedside expertise with systems leadership — translating evidence into practice on hospital units and preparing the next generation of clinicians who care for women and families.
