"All I wanna know is What Medicine to take"

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Specializes in ER, Psych, Telephone Triage.

how annoying these controlling pushy patients are who expect an immediate answer at the start of triage, are difficult about answering your questions. i run a call of "5 year old sore throat" all i need is to know what medicine to give my son! for me to give you my recommendation i need to know more information about whats going on with him.

well his throat hurts but it's nothing.

in the end it winds up being a peritonsillar abscess, the kid has a 104.6 tympanic temp, rash, drooling, hot potatoe voice, unable to swallow and you can barely visualize any space between uvula and tonsil as per dad "lotta swelling down there".

i wound up sending the kid to ed. but these patients who demand immediate answers without first providing hpmi, allergy status, present meds, med hx who in their right mind would give a medication reccomendtion without that data?

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Specializes in LTC, Disease Management, smoking Cessati.

Annoying maybe, but part of a telephone triage job is to teach, so instead of being annoyed maybe you should be reaching out more to those callers.

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Specializes in ER.

I hear you Mike, I took a phone call from the family of a woman I had just discharged that said she had fallen getting out of the truck and now had a big bruise on her leg, and they wondered what to do. I recommended ice and compression, return if concerned, they brought her in 6 hours later and she had bruising from the top to the bottom of her leg, and was basically exsanguinating under the skin. She died within 24h. This was a few years ago, but it cured me of giving out advice over the phone in the ED.

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Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.

We know, as nurses, it is our reponsibility to teach....but when your company tells you that you don't have time to do that, just get yes or no answers and give a recommendation and end the call within a certain time, it is very stressful and I think Mike is just venting.

Many nurses feel Telephone Triage is a "cushy" job. IT'S NOT! It is very frustrating, especially with time constraints from the company. The protocols are guidelines, but we have to think between the lines many times. My company requires that when someone calls to ask what medications to give, we do an assessment first. That makes sense. But I have seen times when a nurse did not do that.

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Specializes in ER, Psych, Telephone Triage.

Yeah just like in ED- with Telephone Triage Patients can be a real pain in the ASS, deliberate and difficult. Lack of understanding is not always the problem quite often the patients are just pain deliberate and nasty and provocative.

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I understand your frustration. Drives me nuts when I hear "All I want to know is what to give, what to do......do I really have to answer all these questions?"

I tell callers that in order to give the the best and the safest recommendations that I need a brief history. I also tell them I will need 10 minutes of their time. Doesn't seem to keep the pushy ones from backing off....love it when they say "so you can't help me..."

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Hey Everyone,

Please help I would like to get into telephone triage nursing but have been out of Nursing about 2 years and worked Home Health for about 10 years. Have my BSN from University of Texas in Austin. Could anyone out there please suggest any book to read or on line course to take that would help me learn to be a telephone triage nurse. I really want to study before I even apply for a position....I guess this sounds kinda crazy....Thanks so much for anyones help!

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Specializes in Occupational health, Corrections, PACU.
Hey Everyone,

Please help I would like to get into telephone triage nursing but have been out of Nursing about 2 years and worked Home Health for about 10 years. Have my BSN from University of Texas in Austin. Could anyone out there please suggest any book to read or on line course to take that would help me learn to be a telephone triage nurse. I really want to study before I even apply for a position....I guess this sounds kinda crazy....Thanks so much for anyones help!

If you do a search online for "continuing education telephone triage" you will get several links. I just happened

to stumble across this a couple of weeks ago, and this one is EXCELLENT! It takes a full one and one half hours to get through, but is one of the best training films on triage I have ever seen. It should be required viewing for every nurse that is hired into a triage position. Do it very soon, though, because it should have already expired, but is still up on their website for free CE.

http://www.4healtheducation.com/tchs/video.asp?quizID=93

Enjoy!

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