Abstract: These years have witnessed the specialized development of the nursing staff. And the certification of clinical nurse specialist is essential to improve the specialized nursing service and meet the needs of diversified professional nursing. As a scientific research method to explore clinical practice, a Role Delineation Study can promote the definition and optimization of specialist nurses's roles to enhance the quality and legal significance of specialty nurse certification. This article combs the implementation process of Role Delineation Study, summarizes its value in the certification of clinical nurse specialist in the United States, and explores its inspiration to clinical nurse specialist certification in China, in order to provide a reference for promoting its application in the certification and training of clinical nurse specialist in China.

Key words: Role Delineation Study; job task analysis; clinical nurse specialist; nursing; review