Meanings of care management built throughout nurses’ professional education

Resumen

This study aimed to understand the meanings of care management for undergraduate students, registered nurses and professors during their professional education. It is a qualitative study, based on the Grounded Theory, conducted in a university hospital, between October 2010 and July 2011, with 21 participants in three sample groups (undergraduate students, professors, and registered nurses) and analyzed through Donabedian’s reference of health care quality evaluation. The study identified three categories: nurses as managers of material structure and personnel; Nursing management as a dynamic and multifactorial process; Giving to nurses the responsibility for care outcomes and practices and their distance from care practice. This study unveiled the managerial characteristic that has conflicts with the care work process, due to nurses’ overload of activities, who are responsible for care structure, process and outcomes conducted by a health team. It is necessary to enhance professional and continuing education to the practice of care management.