Care management and quality of care [gestión del cuidado y calidad de la atención]

Objective: to understand the perception by Nursing professionals of the "Care Management" construct, and its relationship with quality of care. Method: a narrative review of literature was conducted, through a bibliographic search from September 25th, 2020, to November 17th, 2020, in seven databases: SciELO, ScienceDirect, EBSCO, CUIDEN, Cinahl, Scopus, and Google Scholar. For this search, key words were used in standardized language, obtained from the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) (20): Nursing; hospital legislation; healthcare quality indicators; Primary Care. Words in natural language were also used: care management, quality of care. The articles had to be published within the last 10 years, and in Spanish, English or Portuguese. Documents were selected according to specific elegibility criteria. Results: in total, 15 documents were included in the review. It was observed that the Care Management construct had different meanings, which were associated to delivering good quality care; leadership, professional skills, and continuous improvement stood out among these. According to the evidence analysed, one of the challenges for Nursing professionals was the reinforcement in the training area regarding care management, because gaps were observed in the education and training in this area. Conclusion: the evidence showed that an adequate understanding of the Care Management construct from the first levels of training improved the quality of care delivered.