Clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners: Complementary roles for infectious disease and infection control

Background The escalation of infectious diseases worldwide heralds an unprecedented need for nurses with advanced practice graduate preparation. Objective To describe how a graduate program prepares clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners in infectious diseases or infection control to provide distinct yet complementary care for patients with contagious disease and potentially antimicrobial-resistant infections. Results The University of Washington School of Nursing launched a new master of nursing program for infectious disease and infection control to reduce the threat of infectious diseases and multiple-resistant organisms.