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Accessibility, Competency, and Education
Availability/Competency/Education(ACE) strategies will include
definition of core competencies and means to enable case managers to reach
them, such as training and outreach. The ACCM Leadership Council will develop
an initial plan of action to be discussed further.
Accessibility, Competency and Education
I. Education
| Education drives accessibility and competency. There are a growing number of accredited schools of nursing, social work and other health disciplines teaching case management. Some of these programs are designed for distance learning. There are also a number of case management certificate programs housed within continuing education programs of schools. Some are teaching single courses where others have an emphasis in case management and a particular clinical area, like case management and the elderly. There also are continuing education courses offered by a variety of sources that purport to train case managers at the entry level. Overall, there is a shortage of appropriate educational programs teaching case management. The most common way a person learns case management is through on the job training. There is no standard curriculum in case management, though some progress has been made on identification of case management knowledge domains and much is written in the literature about both preparation and orientation of case managers.
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We propose:
- A. Identification of as many
of case management education programs as possible,
creating a compendium of sources, covering both
quantity and quality. The latter requires application
of some objective criteria; that adopted by CMSA
several years ago for CE programs provides a starting
point.
- Survey identified programs
and collect basic information about each program. This
could lead to a directory of programs in case
management. Such a directory could be made available
on line.
- Subsequent to identification of programs, collect competency information from each program in terms of the learning outcomes planned.
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II. Competency
| Competency among case managers varies depending on preparation, experience, and employer demands. The goal of this effort would be to develop competency statements for case managers. Competencies would be collected from educational programs surveyed. CMSA Standards of Practice provide a foundation. In addition, we would review the literature and also review certification criteria and knowledge domains underlying the exams in drafting competency statements. Employers of case managers could also be surveyed for competency statements. A consensus group of CMLC participants would be tasked to review the above information and write competency statements. These statements would be field reviewed for validity.
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III. Accessibility
| Case managers are in demand and many positions are unfilled. In part this is because there is a shortage of many health workers, particularly nurses and social workers - two fields case managers typically are drawn from. The nursing shortage plays an interesting dynamic in case management recruitment. Some nurses are leaving hospitals and other organized nursing services in favor of case management because of working environments. But there still are not enough competent case managers. In order to improve accessibility of case managers, we must address education of case managers and competency. Then it may be possible for CMLC to discuss the nature of positive working conditions that foster excellent case management practice, productivity and satisfaction.
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February 3, 2004 Meeting - The
Competency Task Force has recommended that the task was better
served coming from a member association. The task was
delegated to CMSA. CMSA has identified a project leader and
has a draft outline of the project going forward. CMSA would
greatly appreciate the input and recommendations of the CMLC
members prior to its planning for budgetary and legal support.
Please send your feedback to Jeanne.Boling@cmsa.org.
Thank you for your time and responses.
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