The NHSBSP (2008b) guidelines stress that
nursing care should be evidence-based and
reviewed regularly to ensure that high standards
of practice are achieved and maintained. CNSs
are responsible for evaluating their practice. There
is agreement in the literature that the role of the
CNS is poorly defined (Joneset al2010). This
ambiguity, and the lack of statistical outcome
data, make evaluating CNSs’ practice difficult.
Furthermore, time constraints and lack of staffing
contribute to these difficulties.