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Case management is a model of care delivery that integrates patient and provider satisfaction and consideration of cost factors and provides a method of managing individuals' holistic health concerns. Using the case management approach, nurses can optimize client self-care, decrease fragmentation of care, provide quality care across a continuum, enhance clients' quality of life, decrease length of hospitalization, increase client and staff satisfaction, and promote cost-effective use of scarce resources. Case management offers nurses an opportunity to demonstrate their roles in multidisciplinary health care teams. Case management is relevant in ambulatory surgery settings and in the perioperative care of complex surgical patients.

The AORN Foundation and the National League for Nursing (NLN) cosponsored a think tank to address concerns about the shortage of perioperative nurses and the lack of perioperative experiences in many nursing programs. Think tank participants identified traditional and existing paradigms in nursing education and envisioned a new self-directed learning model for nursing school curricula, in which students would be held accountable for their own learning and faculty members would serve as learning facilitators. AORN and NLN members agreed to collaborate to spread the message that the perioperative arena is an excellent place for nursing students to develop the knowledge, skills, and values they will need to practice effectively in today's complex health care institutions.

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