Nurse case management: negotiating care together within a developing relationship.

Unlabelled: TOPIC/PROBLEM: The purpose of this study was to explicate the process of nurse case management involving clients afflicted with chronic mental illness.

Method: Grounded theory was the method of choice. Interviews were conducted with nurses in inpatient, transitional, and community settings in four cities in southern Ontario, Canada.

Findings: Negotiating care together within a developing relationship emerged as the basic social process. "Building a trusting relationship" was identified as the foundation of case management.

Conclusions: Salient differences were found between the three settings, yet the basic social process was consistent across settings. This underscores the therapeutic relationship as the basis for nurse psychiatric case management.