Telephone Triage a New Subspecialty in Nursing Care

As the term implies, telephone triage is the interaction between the nurse and client that takes place in a telephone conversation or encounter.  Telephone triage involves the process of providing safe, effective and appropriate solutions to health-related problems by Registered Nurses using nursing standards and/or guidelines and decorum.  During patient or clientele encounter in a telephone triage, nurses are required to assess the gravity of the situation, provide patient teachings, and intervene in crisis.  With these functions, telephone triage should not be mistaken with telepractice or telehealth as it takes more than just giving advice and providing health teachings in order to become a triage nurse.

Telephone triage nurses are not meant to diagnose their clients’ conditions but rather gather as much data as possible like patient symptoms and medical history.  The gathered data are then matched up with the nursing protocols and provide patient care in a safe and timely fashion that will cater the caller’s needs.  It is the process of giving the patient the appropriate treatment modality at the right time by the right healthcare provider, especially at times when visits to the emergency room are not possible.

Telephone triage is also one way to decrease the cost of healthcare.  Once handled properly and relief of symptoms are achieved, unwanted ER and doctor visits are prevented, anxiety is greatly reduced, clients become well-educated, the risks for medical complications and exacerbations are prevented and client satisfaction is guaranteed since patients value the kind of care that healthcare providers are giving them.  Thus telephone triage should not be undermined as it contributes a lot to the efficacy of the healthcare delivery system.

It takes more than just answering a call or giving friendly advices in becoming a telephone triage nurse.  In a nurse triage, nurses are to make their patients feel that they are present or attending to the patient’s needs as in the actual setting by means of thorough listening.  Triage nurses are also required to be warm and friendly in speaking and in dealing with their patients to make them feel comfortable and lessen their anxiety.  Cooperation is more likely to be gained from a client who is not anxious and has a sense of control.

As mentioned earlier, nurses are not allowed to formulate any form of diagnosis especially the medical once.  However, there are certain situations wherein they can formulate nursing diagnoses with which they will use in detecting and documenting the significant changes whether it is an improvement of the current condition or the flipside of it.  This will allow them to anticipate for further problems and formulate treatment modalities that are more effective and beneficial to the patient.