Helen Balsdon and Susan Wilkinson describe a trust’s internal review to assess whether nursing resources were being used effectively

The contribution made by clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) to patient care needs to be understood fully to provide assurance of effective use of resources. However, CNS roles are often poorly understood and not easily articulated. Due to the diversity of these roles, robust reviews of performance and economic benefits can be regarded as time consuming and resource intense, and many organisations enlist external agencies to clarify the contribution to care made by their CNSs. This article gives an overview of a Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust internal review of CNS roles without the support of an external agency. The review provided assurance that this group of nurses is being used effectively and identified opportunities to use the role in different ways to increase effectiveness.