Qualitative Study on the Role of Nurses as Health Case Managers of Children in Foster Care in California

This qualitative study on nurses who provide health case management for children in foster care examined their vision for the care needed to improve health outcomes. A purposive sample of eight public health nurses was selected to participate in semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using content analysis to formulate a narrative description of the nurses' vision. Two themes emerged from the data: (1) the desire to give holistic care with an emphasis on mental health care and (2) the difficulty with providing preventive care as a result of multiple causes of health problems.