In the early- to mid-1990s, NurseFinders, Inc., had a great advertisement with a description of a case manager. They called it the "Case Manager's Creed." I read it again this week, and despite our evolution and challenges of 2020 and beyond, I can still relate to it. An excerpt:

To be a case manager, one must be courteous, diplomatic, caring, shrewd, persuasive, assertive, creative, supportive, understanding, responsible slow-to-anger, adaptable, a Sherlock Holmes, a motivator, up-to-date, good looking, have a good memory, acute business judgement, emotional stability, and the embodiment of virtue, but with a good working knowledge of sin and evil in all its forms.

A case manager must understand insurance, electricity, chemistry, physiology, mechanics, architecture, physics, bookkeeping, banking, merchandising, selling shipping, contracting, claims adjusting, law, medicine, real estate, horse trading, and human nature. A case manager must be a coordinator, clinician, coach, therapist, educator, consumer, advocate, and administrator.

A case manager must be a mind reader, a hypnotist, and an athlete, must be acquainted with machinery of all types, and materials of all kinds, and must know the current price of everything from a shoestring to a skyscraper, an aspirin to an amputation. They must know all, see all, and tell nothing, and be everywhere at the same time.

And they must satisfy everyone....

All that remains true; however if ever there was a time that tested our mettle, it was 2020. During National Case Management Week of 2020, we were at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were fatigued, and wondering where our next wave of resilience would come from. But:

* You were there when families needed to say "goodbye."

* You were there when patients needed a post-acute facility, durable medical equipment, or home therapies.

* You were there when patients needed advocacy.

* You still there to make sure the bills were paid and the insurance companies were informed.

* You were there for your colleagues (even cried with your coworkers) as we endured the pandemic together.

* You were there with full hearts, even if you were in harm's way.

There you have it. Case managers are ubiquitous; there is no other professional like you. And as Og Mandino, American author (1923-1996), stated, "Proclaim Your Rarity." Again, it is National Case Management Week 2021, and I am humbled to be part of our case management family.

case management description; National Case Management Week