Being crucial allies: A qualitative study of social and healthcare workers’ experiences of collaborating with nurse case managers

Various support interventions, such as nurse case managers (NCMs), have emerged in response to increasing inequality in health and the growing population with multi-morbidity. NCMs collaborate with a wide range of professionals across social and healthcare services. This study explored social and healthcare workers’ perspectives on collaborating with hospital-based NCMs. A total of 16 social and healthcare workers were interviewed. A thematic analysis led to three themes that describe the NCMs as follows: 1) being crucial allies who gather the threads; 2) breaking free of standardised care to create flexible support solutions; and 3) making a difference to individuals who are in vulnerable positions. Highly effective and specialised societal systems have created a need for services such as the NCMs, who will act as crucial allies to both collaboration partners and patients. Based on the accounts of our participants, NCMs contributed with something more to the cross-sectorial collaboration, than what they had experienced in previous collaborative partnerships. This study underlines the need for structural changes if we are to address the sustained issues of health inequalities.