Professional nursing practice in neurology ambulatory care.

The ambulatory care setting is an important expanding area for professional nursing practice. The demand for ambulatory care nurses is stimulating the definition and development of professional nursing practices in outpatient clinics. Neurology ambulatory care at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, is provided in the context of contributing to biomedical research. This article discusses the components of patient selection criteria, experimental therapy, and research data collection that have implications for nursing care. Visit categories are used to discuss administrative and practice issues of the research patient population at all institutes. Management plans are discussed, and a case study is presented along with a care plan.