Specialty and advanced practice nursing: discerning the differences.

Advanced practice nursing and specialty practice are terms that are often used interchangeably in nursing discourse. This column explores the inextricable link, as well as the differences between these two types of practice. Drawing differing conclusions about their specific and cooperative value enables nurses to construct innovative and creative approaches to their continued development that illuminates a path for disciplinary expansion. Congruent programs of education prepare nurses to communicate the distinctiveness of their many and varied contributions to the public with greater clarity and emphatic certainty.