MisfonzRN

So depressing....

CONGRATS! Hopefully you will enjoy your new position. I am also new to telephone triage and have been doing it almost a year now. My advice....find a really good experienced RN that you can shadow and spend as much time with them as you are allowed. Observe as many different calls as you can. Each one is different! Secondly, try not to diagnose. Try to listen to all of the patient's complaints, pick out the ones that are the most concerning and focus on those. It's easy to slip into a protocol based on some symptoms and end up in the wrong place. I once had a patient who called with urinary symptoms....burning, frequency, inability to empty out...UTI, right? The doctor sent her to the hospital for further testing because he suspected cauda equina syndrome. I had never even heard of that! It can be very serious. Thirdly, think of yourself as the air traffic controller. You screen the patient and decide where they need to land. Have fun and welcome to Telephone Triage! Its the wave of the future!

I am an RN in a family medicine practice. I have been here nearly a year after 20 years in ICU. This office did not have an RN previous to me. I am having difficulty getting appropriate calls routed to me for triage. I'm wondering if anyone has a "Red Flag List" that can be used for reference by front office staff. Basically this would be a guide as to which calls should be routed for triage and which should be scheduled for an appointment. For example... all chest pain calls, all weakness on one side of the body, all seizure activity, all trauma... Does anyone use a list like this that would be helpful in guiding the folks who answer the phone as to who to route to triage? Thank you!