Practical meaning of the concept of care management among nurses working in primary health care

According to the Chilean Health Code, Care Management is understood as the use of professional judgment in the planning, organization, motivation and control of appropriate, safe and comprehensive care provision to ensure continuous healthcare based on clear policies and strategic guidelines in every institution. Considering this, it is important to clarify the meaning of the concept of Care Management among nurses who work in the public Primary Care Health Sector of the Ninth Region of Chile. Methods: Use of qualitative method, Grounded Theory and data collected through in-depth interviews with six nurses who work in the public health sector taking into consideration ethical principles. Analysis carried out using the ATLAS.ti program. Results: Emergence of 10 categories linked to the study objectives: Care Management, Healthcare Provision, Administrative Service, among others. Conclusion: Nurses recognize the concept, but have not yet adopted it in the Community Nursing, seeing it rather as an activity performed by nurses who work with inpatients. Healthcare provision is seen as their daily work related to patient and community health care. Care management is seen as the use of professional judgment to activities related to government programs management using a family and community oriented approach.