The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) post master's certificate is designed for registered nurses who already have an MSN. The Clinical Nurse Leader is a relatively new advanced nursing role with preparation at the graduate level. Its focus is on managing complex cohorts of patients in a wide variety of health care settings. Four hundred clinical hours of practice are required to meet practice requirements for certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader. These are spent exploring the structure and functioning of the healthcare organization, and analyzing its impact on the delivery of evidenced based nursing care to a specified group of patients. Prepared as an advanced nursing generalist, the CNL is able to practice with any patient population, and in most healthcare settings
