Tele-Nurse: Telephone Triage Protocols

When a patient calls a medical provider with questions or to report symptoms, a nurse experienced in telephone triage will likely take the call. The goals of the triage nurse are to gain the confidence of the patient, relieve anxiety, obtain relevant information about the patient's symptoms, assess the information, and determine the level of medical intervention needed. The triage nurse is an experienced practitioner with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. This reference offers an overview to telephone triage, identifies liability and risk issues, describes the protocol or guideline structure, discusses a typical model (flow chart) of a triage call, and provides specific protocols by which the nurse obtains information leading to an assessment. A new telephone triage nurse can benefit from the information provided in this reference.