Within months of publishing their recommendations in January 2025 and voicing their plans to develop materials for targeted implementation workshops across all BC health authorities, Dr. Leah Lambert and Dr. Sandra Lauck's findings have anchored a summit dedicated to clarifying and advancing the role of clinical nurse specialist.
January 20, 2026
Dr. Leah Lambert, Clinical Associate Professor, and Dr. Sandra Lauck, Associate Professor, hold dual roles as UBC faculty members and clinical nurse scientists at BC Cancer Research Centre/Providence Health Services Authority (BCCRC/PHSA). Their CIHR-funded policy study released in January 2025, Policy Recommendations for Optimizing the Clinical Nurse Specialist Workforce in British Columbia, was the key report that informed a summit hosted last fall by BCCRC/PHSA.
Their study focuses on the particular skills and knowledge of the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), a role that describes over 100 registered nurses or registered psychiatric nurses in British Columbia who hold a master's or doctoral degree in nursing and expertise in a clinical nursing specialty. Because CNSs do not benefit from a protected title in Canada, they are underutilized and their role is implemented unevenly across health authorities in BC. This study highlights "the pressing need to clarify, support, and optimize the role of the CNS provincially and nationally to provide clinical leadership and support health system transformation."
According to a recent post on the BC Cancer Research website,
These findings set the stage for the BC Clinical Nurse Specialist Summit, held in October 2025, where more than 110 CNSs and senior nursing leaders from across the province came together to advance this work.
For more about the summit, read the "BCCRC Story." For our story about and link to the report, read "CRNS Report Released."