Making the Case for the Nurse as the Leader of Care Coordination

Care coordination has emerged as an effective model of care that contributes to healthcare reform's triple aim of decreasing costs, understanding the needs of individuals, and improving outcomes. This paper provides an argument that nurses should be the leaders of care coordination. Relationships among care coordination, nursing education, and professional values are made to show a common thread that ties the foundations of each. Benefits to outcomes and improved costs by nurses are also presented as defense for this claim. Rebuttals to arguments against this claim attempt to repudiate their worth and continue to show nursing's strategic position to assume this role.