Case managers work directly with patients and healthcare providers to determine the best way to provide necessary care. As a case manager, you’ll need to balance patients’ needs with the resources available to you, which may vary depending on the context of your employer. Case managers often work for hospitals, private healthcare providers, and insurance companies, which means you’ll need to consider cost efficiency alongside patient care — which is to say that case management isn’t an easy job, but it is an extremely rewarding one.
Since you’ll be working in the medical field, you’ll need to demonstrate core technical skills as well as transferable skills like communication, crisis management, and conflict resolution. You may need a background in nursing, social work, as well as specific certificates or licencing depending on your field and state. Common prerequisites include the Certified Case Manager (CCM) and Accredited Case Manager (ACM) certifications.
Case manager salaries vary according to your field and background, with nurse case managers earning the highest salary at an average of over $70,000 a year. In 2023, case managers will need to be aware of trends like telehealth services and the growing impact of data mining and artificial intelligence.
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As a Case Manager, you'll be responsible for coordinating and overseeing care plans for individuals in various settings, such as healthcare, social work, or legal services. Since this role requires strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills, as well as an understanding of resources and systems, it's crucial to showcase these abilities in your resume. Don't forget to mention your knowledge of any industry-specific regulations and systems. Another key factor is to keep up-to-date with recent trends and interventions that may impact your target job and company, and include relevant examples in your resume.
In addition to your experiences and qualifications, it's important to emphasize your ability to build relationships and work with diverse populations. Highlight your adaptability and emotional intelligence, as well as any familiarity with local resources or community programs. Be sure to mention any certifications or trainings related to your role as a Case Manager, such as crisis intervention or trauma-informed care.
Highlight the skills you've developed in previous roles that are essential for a Case Manager, such as communication, organization, and time management. Detail how you've utilized these skills to advocate and collaborate effectively on behalf of clients.
Provide examples of cases you've managed, detailing your involvement in assessing needs, developing care plans, coordinating services, and monitoring progress. Use quantifiable data, such as caseload sizes or successful outcomes, to demonstrate your effectiveness in these responsibilities.
As a case manager, you’ll be handling case assignments, coordinating patient care, and looking out for the needs of your clients. This means you’ll need technical skills in healthcare management, program development, reporting, and cost analysis, as well as soft skills like empathy, problem solving, and communication. Resist the temptation to load your resume with buzzwords or subjective statements and focus on demonstrating your accomplishments in action.
The best way to demonstrate that you can do the job you’re applying for is by using action-based bullet points. Action verbs like Developed, Managed, and Organized keep the focus on what you’ve accomplished in each role, rather than simply listing your assigned job duties. For even greater impact, follow these up with metrics that demonstrate the impact of your achievements.
Case managers need plenty of soft skills. How do you highlight these without listing them as you would hard skills? By demonstrating them in action! Use your accomplishments to show hiring managers what you’re capable of. Saying that you implemented a social and emotional skills program is much more effective than trying to list leadership or empathy as skills on your resume.
In the mental health field, case managers play a crucial role in coordinating care and support for clients with mental health issues. As the industry shifts towards a more person-centered approach, mental health case managers are in high demand. When preparing your resume for this role, it's essential to demonstrate your understanding of mental health disorders and commitment to advocating for clients' well-being.
Showcase your ability to work with interdisciplinary teams, as well as your experience in various settings such as hospitals, outpatient clinics, or community-based programs. A strong resume will highlight your skills in assessment, treatment planning, and crisis intervention, as well as your ability to connect clients with community resources.
Mental health case managers rely heavily on software programs to track client progress and manage their caseloads. Highlight your proficiency with programs like Credible, TheraNest, or Procentive, as well as any experience in using electronic health record systems.
Mental health case managers work closely with patients who have additional psychological, behavioural, or substance abuse issues. You’ll need a healthy dose of compassion and people skills in addition to an understanding of mental health support services and the ability to develop individual treatment plans. As a mental health case manager, you could work in a variety of settings including hospitals, treatment centers, rehabilitation facilities, and private homes.
Your resume should always emphasize your most relevant experience, which means focusing on previous experience as a mental health case manager or counselor, social worker, and skills like Microsoft Office and EPIC systems. Using a resume title and summary is another great way to tailor your resume and quickly highlight any particularly impressive accomplishments.
If you have non-work experience that’s relevant to mental health case management — like a master’s degree in psychology, case manager certification, or volunteer work leading city projects — that belongs on your resume just as much as your paid experience. You can include volunteer experience under your work history or in an additional section at the end of your resume.
Nurse Case Managers are vital in the healthcare industry as they coordinate patient care and improve healthcare outcomes. They manage and monitor patient cases, ensuring the best possible care is provided to address patients' unique needs. To write a resume for a Nurse Case Manager role, it's essential to stay up-to-date on industry trends and showcase the skills that make you an exceptional candidate. Emphasize your ability to work with interdisciplinary teams, manage patient cases, and navigate complex healthcare systems.
In recent years, the focus on preventive care and patient advocacy has grown significantly. Therefore, a Nurse Case Manager's resume should demonstrate the ability to assess patients' needs holistically and develop personalized, comprehensive care plans. It's essential to show your understanding of the importance of patient-centered care and the impact of industry trends on your role as a Nurse Case Manager.
In your resume, emphasize your experience in coordinating care, working with interdisciplinary teams, and managing communication between patients, families, and healthcare providers. Nurse Case Managers need to effectively collaborate with various stakeholders to ensure seamless, efficient care delivery.
Nurse case managers are registered nurses (RNs) who provide dedicated recovery plans to individual patients, often in a hospital or acute care setting. In addition to licensure as an RN, you’ll need an understanding of patients’ health needs, the ability to monitor patients and work with other care professionals to ensure continued recovery, and the knowledge and background to source cost-effective care solutions.
Including numbers and metrics on your resume isn’t just for show. Quantifying your achievements makes them more objective and reliable, and numbers speak to the exact nature of your achievement and its impact on the company or organization. Plus, they’re also just more impressive — consider “managed clinic referrals” versus “managed an average of 400 clinic referrals per month,” for example.
As a nurse case manager, you’ll need more than just people skills to succeed. Your resume should list any hard skills the job requires, including HCPCS, MEDITECH, and billing software. You should aim to pick 5-10 of the top skills you need and list them at the end of your resume, in a skills or additional information section.
Unlike most nursing positions, the role of a nurse case manager is more administrative in nature. As a nurse case manager, you’ll be in a supervisory role, with responsibilities including making decisions regarding budgets and scheduling, managing a team of nurses, and developing patient care plans. Your resume should highlight soft skills like leadership, decision making, and communication alongside hard skills in patient care and technology.
Using concrete numbers in your bullet points can be the best way to demonstrate your achievements. Instead of “lowered spending costs,” be specific and write “lowered spending costs by 25%.” If you led a team of 30, managed records for 500 patients, or oversaw a 26-bed unit, including those details will help your accomplishments stand out.
In a role like nurse case manager that requires specific hard skills, you can list these in a separate skills section at the bottom of your resume. This includes specific software like HCPCS or MEDITECH systems, which are often keywords that hiring managers or applicant tracking systems (ATS) will be screening for.
A RN case manager is a registered nurse who works in a specialized manner to organize patient care and treatment. RN case managers essentially act as a liaison between the patient, doctors, and other healthcare providers to ensure the treatment plan is satisfactory for everyone involved.
Aspiring RN case managers will need several relevant experiences to be considered for the role. When recruiting for this position, hiring managers will be looking for a candidate with a BSN in nursing with RN licensing. Hiring managers will typically look for someone with 3+ years of hands-on nursing experience to consider them for a case manager role. They may also look for ancillary training and certification specific to the case manager position
Having an RN license and solid work experience is a great start. However, earning a CCMC (Commission for Case Manager Certification), RN-BC (Nurse Case Manager Certification) or CMCN (Certified Managed Care Nurse) will add authority to your resume and set you apart. These certifications all showcase that you have specialized knowledge about RN case management.
Entry-level case managers are almost always found in the healthcare industry. The position will see you striving to facilitate the best care possible for patients. You will be in charge of assessing a patient’s needs, creating a treatment plan, coordinating services/care, and addressing any problems that may arise. You will be working under the supervision of a more experienced case manager and they will provide you with on-the-job training. Recruiters will expect to see a degree in healthcare or a related field. Any experience in the healthcare field will also be highly valued. Take a look at this strong resume sample.
Certifications are a great way to put yourself above the competition. They indicate to recruiters that you are more qualified and that you are driven and passionate about the field. So if you have any healthcare or case management-related certifications, make sure you include them in your resume. This applicant has 3 impressive certifications.
You may not have a lot of direct experience, so your skills section is particularly important in showing recruiters what you can do. You will want to make sure you include all the industry-standard tools you will be expected to use in your tools list. Go the extra step and find out what tools are used in the facility you are applying to and ensure your list includes them. Take a crash course to learn how to use any tool you are not familiar with before adding it to your resume.
As a hiring manager who has recruited case managers at companies like UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and Anthem, I've seen firsthand what makes a resume stand out. The following tips will help you craft a compelling case manager resume that showcases your skills and experience in the most effective way possible.
Certifications demonstrate your expertise and commitment to the field. Be sure to list any relevant certifications you have earned, such as:
By highlighting your certifications, you show potential employers that you have the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in a case manager role.
A summary, also known as a professional summary or career summary, is an optional section at the top of your resume that highlights your most relevant qualifications, skills, and experiences. While not required, a well-written summary can help you stand out to hiring managers and provide context for your career goals and background, especially if you are changing careers or have a diverse work history. However, avoid using an objective statement, as they are outdated and focus on what you want rather than what you can offer the employer.
When crafting your summary for a Case Manager position, focus on your relevant skills, such as client advocacy, care coordination, and knowledge of community resources. Quantify your achievements where possible and tailor your language to the specific job description. Keep it concise, around 3-5 sentences or bullet points, and make sure it adds value beyond what is already included in your work experience section.
The work experience section is the most important part of your case manager resume. It's where you show hiring managers how you've made an impact in previous roles, and how your skills and experience align with the job requirements.
In this section, we'll break down the key steps to writing a compelling work experience section that will grab the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.
You know the importance of focusing on your accomplishments, but do you know the best way to do it? By using strong resume action verbs! Starting each bullet point with an action verb enables you to frame your accomplishments in a positive light and keeps the spotlight on what you actually achieved — not just what you were told to do.
Want to convince a hiring manager how well you work with patients? Focus on using action verbs like Cared or Assisted. Need to emphasize your organizational skills? Choose Implemented, Facilitated, or Arranged. And if you’re looking to take the next step and want to highlight your leadership and initiative, verbs like Improved, Oversaw, and Increased may be what you’re looking for.
For more related action verbs, visit Medical Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
Including the right skills and keywords on your resume could mean the difference between getting the job and your resume falling through the cracks. An increasing number of recruiters use Applicant Tracking systems (ATS) to automatically scan for keywords and filter out any resumes that don’t list core skills. To avoid this, make sure you’re explicitly listing your hard skills — like software and certifications — in an easily scannable way.
How do you figure out which skills hiring managers are looking for? The job description itself is always a good place to look — most job ads will highlight the most essential skills needed for the position. If you’re still not sure, we’ve analyzed over one million job postings to compile a list of top resume skills and keywords, and we also provide a free Targeted Resume tool that will give you personalized feedback and suggestions for improvement.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Case Manager job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
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