Understanding the Path to Becoming a Nurse Case Manager: Traditional Degrees vs. Specialized Courses
The journey to becoming a nurse case manager involves the pivotal decision about education and training. While traditional university degrees are becoming more available, specialized courses like those offered by the Case Management Institute present an alternative path. This article explores these two routes, focusing on the financial and time commitments involved.
Questions and Tips to Improve Your Documentation!
The importance of documentation cannot be overemphasized. In this post, I wanted to share some questions and tips to improve your documentation. As nurse case managers, we learned about documentation during our training, but with technology taking over healthcare, our documentation is more important than ever.
Take some time to think about how you document. Is it clear? Does it help the healthcare team coordinate care and ensure streamlined communication? Could a colleague pick up your cases if you had to take time off? Here are some points to review and see how you can improve your documentation.
Benefits of Belonging to Your Professional Organization
Case Managers are professionals from various disciplines. As professionals, we have a responsibility to be a cut above. We must adhere to a code of conduct and ethical standards, and participate in professional development activities, including Belonging to Your Professional Organization
To meet each of these responsibilities, belonging to a professional organization is critical as professional organizations have the responsibility of keeping the workforce up to date as the industry changes.
In the area of case management, we have several professional organizations that case managers can belong to. Most people decide on which organization they will belong to by the sector they are in. Here are a few that you can consider:
The Ethical Conundrum of Healthcare Ethics Committees
The Ethical Conundrum of Healthcare Ethics Committees – Ethics committees have been a condition of Joint Commission accreditation since 1992, yet there is massive variation in their implementation and use. They should not replace the dialogues of interprofessional team members with patients, families, or each other.
The ONE tool that will help pass the CCM Exam
Recently, I was emailed a question from a case manager who was preparing to sit for the CCMC Exam for the 2nd time. I decided to write this article as it is a common question. his questions from a case manager who is preparing to take the CCM Exam for the 2nd time. She is searching for the ONE tool that will help her pass. In my answer, I try to tell her that there is no magic tool. She has purchased a number of tools. Now she has to do the work to understand the material so that she can answer the questions on the exam by critically thinking.
To Post or Not to Post?
The discharge planning process always moved quickly, but today it’s on steroids! Case managers face intense pressure to quickly transition patients to that next level of care, or home. Whether you case manage for a hospital, an MCO, or a community-based agency, you need information when you need it! That means you need a space to ask questions that provide responses “in the moment” and that is often not the workplace! Social media has become the fastest way for case managers and other healthcare professionals to quickly get information on what resource to use, and when!
More and more new case managers are entering the workforce than ever before, and their onboarding happens at warp speed. They commonly ping “friends” or tag “connections for discharge planning and other resources, from treatment and provider recommendations to specific home health agencies and skilled nursing homes. Complex patient circumstances become an opportunity for colleagues to weigh in on the management of everything from addiction and family dynamics to those “tough to place” patients, prescription drug access, and other psychosocial circumstances. After all, there’s no harm in asking for this information, right? WRONG!
Seeking Social Media Recommendations: The Ethical Quandary for Case Management
Case managers and other healthcare professional who are Seeking Social Media Recommendations, become an Ethical Quandary for Case Management as they commonly ping “friends” or tag “connections” for resource info from treatment and provider recommendations to specific home health agencies and skilled nursing homes. Complex patient circumstances become group chats. After all, there’s no harm in seeking consultation or recommendations, right? Read how unintentional posts become ethical and legal missteps, and how to best manage them.
Need to Renew your Case Manager Certification Soon? 10 Tips to Help You Through the Journey
If you are a new Certified Case Manager, congratulations. Once you get over celebrating, it is time to think about how you will maintain your hard-earned certification!
You will need to renew your Case Manager Certification soon, and here are 10 tips to help you through your journey.
Read the renewal rules for your certifications. Each Body has specific rules you need to follow. Print off the renewal handbook and READ IT.
Inquiring Minds Want to Know… Who is ANCC and Why Should YOU Know Them?
Who is ANCC?
ANCC stands for the American Nursing Credentialing Center. ANCC is the credentialing arm of the American Nursing Association, the professional organization for nurses. ANCC credentials for both organizations and individuals who advance nursing. In addition to accreditation and certification programs, ANCC also offers ways for organizations to achieve Magnet Status as well as a program titled; Pathways to Excellence. Each recognizes excellence in Nursing.
Your ANCC Nursing Case Management Certification Questions Answered
What is the ANCC Nurse Case Management Certification Exam?
The ANCC (American Nursing Credentialing Center) Nurse Case Management Certification exam is one of the many certifications case managers can take to validate their work in case management. The major difference between this one and the other case management certification exams is that the ANCC exam is focused on the nursing process.
The largest discipline to work in case management, utilization management, and population health is nursing. As a result, the ANCC developed the Nursing Case Management Exam specifically for registered nurses who work in case management across the broad healthcare continuum.