By Dr. Colleen Morley, DNP, RN, CCM, CMAC, CMCN, ACM-RN, FCM

Nurses’ Week has evolved into Nurses’ Month: A four weeklong celebration, with each week focused on a different topic — Self-Care, Recognition, Professional Development, and Community Engagement.

Nurses Month celebrates the fact that nurses bring vast knowledge and expertise to every health care setting across a wide range of specialties, and this is demonstrated most fully within the practice of professional case management. By serving your patients and communities throughout the continuum of life and across the continuum of care, nurse case managers truly make a difference through striving for improved health outcomes by providing evidence-based resources, by influencing and shaping health policy decisions that ensure all people have access to high-quality, affordable healthcare and by adhering to the case management tenets of right care, right setting, right time and cost-effectiveness.

As part of my journey as CMSA National President, I have the great joy of visiting many of the local chapters’ conferences and this past month was no different. I attended the Fort Wayne, IN chapter conference on 4/13/23 and the one in Dallas/Forth Worth, TX on 4/29/23. Engaged, vibrant groups of case management professionals across the disciplines!

After the Dallas Fort Worth event, a small group decided to gather for lunch — all nurses. So, five nurses go to lunch and the conversation ran the gamut between talking about family and love lives to recent nursing news (diploma mill scandal), to staffing concerns (the impact of COVID 19, nurses eating their young and how to put an end to that), to succession planning and why the concept of case management still is not being taught in any level of formal education (unless in a specialty graduate program). A lot of topics, rapid fire but with great insights and input from all.

And that’s what I love about being a nurse. As a profession/discipline, we can make those rapid adjustments to the situation, analyze and contribute to the conversation/solution. So many thanks to my lunch partners (Angela Glover, Cheryl Crittendon-Glaspie, Vanessa Daniel and Linda Hackathorn) for the conversation, the insight, the camaraderie and the fellowship. In one day, I received a month’s worth of Self-Care, Recognition, Professional Development, and engagement in my professional community.

Find a year’s worth of Self-Care, Recognition, Professional Development, and Community Engagement at the 2023 CMSA Annual Conference, June 27-30 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. Leave refreshed, invigorated, inspired, and reconnected! Register now at https://cmsa.societyconference.com/

Ready to get started now? Visit our monthly education page featuring popular RN courses from the CMSA Educational Resource Library!

Bio: Dr. Colleen Morley, DNP, RN, CCM, CMAC, CMCN, ACM-RN, FCM, is the Associate Chief Clinical Operations Officer, Care Continuum for University of Illinois Health System, and the current President of the Case Management Society of America National Board of Directors.  She has held positions in acute care as Director of Case Management at several acute care facilities and managed care entities in Illinois, overseeing Utilization Review, Case Management and Social Services for over 14 years; piloting quality improvement initiatives focused on readmission reduction, care coordination through better communication and population health management. Her current passion is around improving health literacy. She is the recipient of the CMSA Foundation Practice Improvement Award (2020) and ANA Illinois Practice Improvement Award (2020) for her work in this area. Dr. Morley also received the AAMCN Managed Care Nurse Leader of the Year in 2010 and the CMSA Fellow of Case Management designation in 2022. Her 1st book, “A Practical Guide to Acute Care Case Management”, published by Blue Bayou Press was released in February 2022. Dr. Morley has over 20 years of nursing experience. Her clinical specialties include Med/Surg, Oncology and Pediatric Nursing. She received her ADN at South Suburban College in South Holland, Il; BSN at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, FL, MSN from Norwich University in Northfield, VT and her DNP at Chamberlain College of Nursing.