Case management: a week in the life of a clinical case management team

Abstract

This paper describes the work of a clinical case management core team (four nurses and an occupational therapist) during the course of a week. Information was gathered through non-participant observation of the team by two independent researchers. Transcripts produced from the data recorded were examined. From this, seven categories of activity were identified: planned client contact; unplanned client contact; family/carer contact; liaison; administration; team information sharing and supervision, training and personal development. These categories were felt to encompass the range of activities practised by the team. The amount of time that case managers spent engaged in these core functions was calculated. Detailed examples are presented. Results are discussed with reference to Kanter's components and principles of clinical case management.

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction Among Swedish Occupational Therapists in Psychiatric Care

“…However, when it comes to research in this area, occupational therapists seem to have concentrated on providing clinical supervision mainly to occupational therapy assistants and occupational therapy students, and there is practically no research focusing on the occurrence of or need for receiving clinical supervision. However, Waite et al (31) reported, from an investigation of typical work activities of a case management core team of four nurses and one occupational therapist, that team information sharing and supervision was one out of seven typical activities during a week. The study by Gahnstrom-Strandqvist et al (11) indicated that support and supervision from leaders were positively associated with job satisfaction.…”

Learning and performing care management: experiences of a newly formed interdisciplinary, assessment and rehabilitation team

“…As Hudson (2002) notes, working in close proximity to each other in a shared office aids this communication process. Apart from the benefits to clients, team communication and training could also enable care managers to reflect on and cope with stressful situations (Waite et al . 1997).…”

“…Ross & Tissier (1997) list needs assessment, care planning, implementing care plans, monitoring services and reviewing as some of the core tasks. Waite et al (1997) uncovered several categories of main activity, as follows: planned direct client contact (25%); unplanned direct client contact (10%); liaison with other services (5%); administration (17%); family/carer work (1%); information sharing with team members (13%); and supervision and training (16%). Gorman (2000) identified essential care manager skills, such as communication, collaboration, partnership working, negotiation, conflict resolution, and reflective working.…”

Decision making in medium security: Can he have leave?

“…The study sought to record the natural activity of the ward round in an unobtrusive way with the emphasis on verbatim accounts. A similar method of investigation has previously been used successfully to investigate the functioning of a psychiatric team (Waite et al, 1997). Consideration was given to tape recording of discussion but this was not done for two reasons.…”