Home Care Primary Nurse Case Management Model

Abstract

A typical home care nurse is rarely taught a special structured method to do case management. During an orientation, nurses are told they are primary case managers and are oriented to all of the tasks for which they are responsible. However, there is no structured case management method taught. Nurses are typically told that they will develop their own style after observing others. This article describes an organized method of managing patients and their needs with three outcome objectives: to understand the importance of having a structured case management model, to be able to organize and manage all of the tasks for which a primary nurse case manager is responsible, and to increase efficiency with case management issues and decrease or eliminate additional time spent on case management outside of patient visits.