Pros and cons of telephone triage nursing

[MA Nurse]

Hi. I'm looking into this type of work. Could you please give me your experiences with it? What do you like? What do you dislike? Do you miss bedside nursing or not?

How is the pay compared to a bedside nursing job?

Thanks

[Fonenurse]

Hi Kimbalou - any answers I would give regarding pay may say more about the Uk, but when I worked telephone triage, I loved the variety of work - one minute a paeds call, the next an adult diabetic call, another perhaps about a mental health issue.

The good things about it?

• The appreciation you get when people feel someone has listened to them for a change.
  
• No-one vomiting on you or physically absing you
  
• Only having to deal with one patient at once
  
• No more endless paperwork
  
• Once you've finished a call you move on to the next patient

The hard things about this role?

• Not seeing people improve from the advice you gave
  
• Having to rely on other people's descriptions of rashes or potential fractures etc
  
• Never getting to know if the advice you gave actually worked

[MA Nurse]

Thanks so much for your information. I'm going to call about it this week. I'm really tired of dealing with long-term cases. At least where I work, baby vomit is small. LOL

[eltrip]

Additional benefits - no exposure to MRSA, VRE or TB from a patient. No needlesticks. No back strain from helping to lift a patient. No "code brown" to deal with or searching for a ureathral meatus in an 80 y/o female.

Other drawbacks - folks are less polite on the phone than in person. Tone of voice becomes very important when speaking with patients and families, as they can't see your facial expression and (usually) haven't met you.

[MA Nurse]

Good points. I'm lucky I don't have to deal with adults, IMO. I take care of babies, so our code browns are very small.LOL