A day in the life of a trauma case manager

SummaryTrauma patient care is universally recognized as extremely time and resource intensive yet the trauma nursing case management model has yet to be thoroughly embraced in Australian trauma care. Trauma case management (TCM) is a nursing model that involves a nurse with expertise in trauma overseeing and coordinating trauma patient care. The goals of TCM are to provide well-coordinated care for patients and families and ensure that satisfactory clinical outcomes are met. The St. George Hospital Trauma Service first implemented a TCM program in August 2000, since then, we have been able to document improvement in many aspects of trauma care. This paper describes problems commonly encountered when providing care for trauma patients and an experiential description of “The day in the life of a trauma case manager.”