Advancing the role of clinical nurse specialist in rural family health research.

For the clinical nurse specialist (CNS), perhaps the least implemented role is researcher. This is especially true of CNS research pertaining to rural family health. To be effective in this area the CNS must recognize the various definitions of rural, family, and family health. In addition, the impediments to CNS research in rural family health must be addressed. In this article, these issues are discussed, and the nurse-managed center is proposed as an ideal setting for conducting research into rural family health.