The Clinical Nurse Leader Pre-Licensure Program

The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) is a generalist degree developed to address the fragmentation of patient care and to provide accountability for healthcare outcomes. The CNL is a leader in the healthcare delivery system that concentrates on the coordination of patient care and is not a role specific to nursing administration or management. The CNL assumes responsibility for healthcare outcomes by designing, implementing and evaluating patient plans of care.

Graduates of this program are eligible to take the NCLEX licensure examination for Registered Nurses (RN) and the CNL Certification exam offered by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Initially, the CNL Program was instituted in collaboration with MCG Health and University Health Care Systems in Augusta. Students practice skills in the LRC.

Today, our CNL partners have grown to include: Athens Regional Medical Center, St. Mary’s Hospital (Athens), Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (Augusta) and Emory Healthcare (Atlanta). All of these partner institutions enthusiastically support the CNL education efforts as well as provide possible career opportunities for our CNL graduates. These clinical partners enhance the development of the role of the CNL throughout the state of Georgia.

 Program Goals: The goals of the program are to prepare

• nurses who create an environment of clinical excellence which results in improved patient care outcomes.
  
• nurses who are clinical decision makers.
  
• nurses who facilitate and assure individualized, evidence-based and highly effective care to patients and families.

Course of Study: The CNL program is four consecutive semesters, 16 months long. All courses are taught using a real-time technology enhanced process so all students on all campuses receive the same instruction at the same time. Students are able to ask questions of off-site instructors as well as hear the questions asked from other campuses.