Jo Ellen Rust, MSN, RN, CNS

Jo Ellen Rust, M.S.N., R.N., CNS, is recognized by Continental Who’s Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the Clinical Nursing field in recognition of her role as Clinical Nurse Specialist at Riley Hospital for Children. Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University offers a wide range of services to their patients. The healthcare institution offers their patients innovative treatments and therapies to help promote the health and wellness of their patients. Rust has served as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for 31 years at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health. She has been a part of the team at Riley Hospital for the past 40 years, and brings expertise in clinical nursing, pediatrics and neuroscience. She facilitated a program known as Circle of Care for children with special needs and their families for the past 13 years.

Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) are licensed registered professional nurses with graduate preparation (earned master’s or doctorate) from a program that prepares CNSs. A Clinical Nurse Specialist provides health care services in 3 spheres of influence: for the patient, for the advancement of nursing practice and for the improvement of care delivery at the system level. Rust was asked once to do a piece on why she became a nurse for a publication called Indy’s Child. When telling her father about it, he said, “I know why, you always wanted to care for everybody!” She recognized that value as her passion to enter the field of nursing. She is proud of the nursing profession and its reputation repeatedly earned from the public as the most trusted profession. Throughout the course of her education and training, Rust attended Ball State University School of Nursing earning her Bachelor’s in Nursing Science and completed her Master’s degree as a CNS at Indiana University School of Nursing at IUPUI.

 

To further her professional development, Rust has been an active member of numerous professional organizations. She is a member of the American Nurses Association and the Indiana State Nurses Association. She is a founding member of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS). She served as its initial Board Secretary, President Elect, President and Immediate Past President and is continuing to serve as a Member at Large for its Board of Directors. She also participates in the local affiliate of NACNS, the Central Indiana Organization of Clinical Nurse Specialists. In addition to her work at Riley Hospital, Rust served as the CNS Profile column editor for the Clinical Nurse Specialist: The Journal for Advanced Practice Nursing. She contributed to the creation and evolution of The Statement on Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice and Education, a seminal document on the role of the CNS. She also contributed an exemplar chapter to Foundations of Clinical Nurse Specialist Practice in 2014, this text earned the designation of a 2014 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award Winner in Advanced Practice Nursing. She represented NACNS in the development of the scope and standards for genetics/genomics in nursing. She has mentored numerous graduate students seeking to become Clinical Nurse Specialists. While not working Rust enjoys spending time with her family, trying to improve her golf game, travel, reading and quilting. She cites Dr. Brenda Lyon, PhD, CNS, FAAN, Professor Emerita, and Indiana University as one of her mentors.