The New Zealand nurse specialist framework: clarifying the contribution of the nurse specialist.

Maximizing the contribution that nurses can make to the health care outcomes is the focus of health workforce planners and funders worldwide. New Zealand, along with many other countries, faces significant taxonomical challenges in developing specialist nursing workforce as nurse specialists and specialty areas of practice are inconsistently defined. Clearly defining and capturing data on current workforces is a challenge shared by many countries impacting on the ability to understand current supply and plan for anticipated increased demand. This article presents an overview of the New Zealand Nurse Specialist Framework (NZNSF) developed through a consensus approach as part of a doctoral study. The NZSNF has already been adopted by some national nursing groups in New Zealand and provides an overarching structure to support coherence, clarity and consistency for nurse specialists. The framework aims to support workforce policy makers in planning effective utilization of the nurse specialist in health care delivery.