Nurse Case Manager

Who these nurses care for

Inpatients requiring discharge planning, utilization review and care coordination.

What the shift actually looks like

Fifteen to twenty-five patients, none of them assigned for direct care. The day is discharge barriers, payer conversations, family negotiation and documentation. Almost no bedside time.

Credentials and certifications

Typically required

BLS; ACM or CCM valued

Typical ratio

Typically 15–25 patient caseload

What to specify when you send the req

Caseload size, whether the role includes utilization review, and payer mix.

Why this role is hard to fill

Case management and utilization review are often bundled and are genuinely different skill sets. Say which you need.

What candidates ask before accepting

Answering these in the req itself shortens the process considerably, because they are the questions that otherwise surface at offer stage and cause declines: Caseload size, whether utilization review is included, payer mix, and weekend coverage.

Contract or permanent?

Contract for census swings, leave coverage and seasonal surge. Per diem to protect ratios without expanding core FTE. Permanent when the seat is structural. The expensive mistake is running contract labour for eighteen months on a role that was always permanent.

Licensure

Registered nursing is covered by the Nurse Licensure Compact in most of the country, so a multistate license lets a nurse work across member states without a new application. Thirteen jurisdictions sit outside it — Alaska, California, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands — and in those markets every out-of-state nurse needs a single-state license first. Those are the markets where reqs stay open longest.

How we work this req

Every candidate is spoken to before you see them, with licensure for your state, certifications and unit-specific competency confirmed before submittal. We screen to the credential the unit actually needs rather than the title on the posting. Rates sit inside the ranges on our published cost breakdown.