Ruth Perryman explores the role of the clinical nurse specialist drawing on her own observations and relevant literature

The clinical nurse specialist role was first proposed in the UK in the Briggs Report (1972) on the future organ-isation of nursing: ‘we envisage an increasing part to be played by nurses ... carrying out functions in relation to, for instance, personnel and, an important growth area, clinical, operational and other kinds of research. Many of these posts would cross hospital and community borderlines, and there should be freedom of movement between clinical, education and other areas as required by the work in hand’ (Briggs 1972).