OK...guys..I bit the bullet...help!!!

Donnetterr · Oct 18, 2005

I work in a telephone triage center, and I'm a student nurse. I do not do triaging, I take the initial information from callers, including demographics and reason for the call, then one of our nurses returns the call to the patient. However, even as a student nurse, I have had opportunities to use my judgment about who needs to be sent to 911, whose call needs to be taken immediately, transferred to poison control, etc. Our phone line has a disclaimer stating, "If this call is of an emergency nature, please dial 911 immediately", but some patients do not know what constitutes an emergency.

I think you will enjoy telephonic nursing. With all of the experience you have, you will be a big asset to the team. Many patients who call the line are the ones who have no other access to healthcare, so telephone triage centers perform an extremely valuable service. I listen to our nurses as I work, and many of them absolutely love what they do, but a few of them are bored silly. Telephone triage lines tend to get a lot of the same patients, or a lot of the same types of health issues (for example, "Am I pregnant?" "Do I have an STD?" "Do I need to go to the ER?") Some people have a hard time giving up the adrenaline rush of being on the floor or part of a special care unit; on the other hand, many of our nurses have been in our department for more than 10 years. It is a very autonomous environment, with no direct involvement from physicians or administrators.

Good luck to you, and I hope you enjoy the opportunity to work in telephone triage. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and my entry-level position motivated me to enroll in nursing school so I can contribute more to the team.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2005

I worked for a national nurse advice line for a large medical insurance company. The interviewer had a specific list of questions for everyone they were interviewing and almost all of them had to do with emergency type situations. Make sure you know what nursing advice you would give to someone calling in with chest pain, fever (especially with little kids), breathing problems, lacerations from an accident, and even a question about what their medication does. Basically, think about the kinds of things people go to emergency rooms and urgent care centers with because that is much of the serious advice we gave to people calling in to the advice line. My company didn't want us giving out any off the wall "home remedy" type of advice like drinking herbal tea, for example. Most of these calls are recorded and documented so every call was treated just like we were treating a patient sitting in front of us. Just make sure you answer any of these kind of triage questions with straight, from the textbook kind of advice given. Since you already work for the company they may want to make sure you know their policies and procedures insofar as seeing patients is concerned.

Don't worry about the computer part of it. You haven't lived until you've see the software that has been designed for these call-in centers! If they are anything like where I worked, they will have to put you through computer training in order to be able to navigate through the software. Where I worked the training was 3 weeks long and the program was so sophisticated that it also recorded every word both you and the caller spoke! This was used for teaching purposes--it's very weird to hear a replay of your telephone conversation with someone as well as watch the computer screen showing exactly what you typed into the program during the call! The software they use has probably been customized for them anyway. They probably have very standard instructions that will come up right on the computer screen that you will be telling the patients. Still, they want to know that you know what to advise patient's in an emergency situation. The unknown factor is your decision making as an experienced RN. Also, these telephone lines use RNs for legal purposes--your nurse practice act covers RNs giving nursing advice, not someone off the street. You may also be giving very simple advice as well (like we did) and we had a number of computerized and written resources to refer to. It should be good enough that you know what a computer is and that you go on the Internet all the time. Just don't say anything negative about computers. You are probably going to be sitting in front of one for 8 hours at this job and most likely you are going to be typing information into the computer as you talk with people--this is how they "chart" every call that comes in.

Good luck. Let me know if you want more specific information. On a PM I"ll tell you what company I worked for if you want to know.

gr8rnpjt, RN · Oct 18, 2005

OK...
Congratulations on getting an interview. Telephone triage is still patient care, it is just now over the phone. You should stress how you love pt education, how that part of your job is so exiting and how it can make such an impact if patients get a good education from their nurses prior to discharge. I have been in case management and have worked for the top 4 insurance companies in my city. I always like to describe it as having become a very good listener! You can actually assess breath sounds on your pt over the phone, can differentiate easy breathing vs. short of breath, or wheezing.
(I became really good at that!) so stress that pt education is your passion, that you like to make sure your pt does not return in a week, so you really like to make sure you do a lot of teaching during their stay. Good luck!:balloons: