Talk:Telephone triage

Documentation of permission?
The text of the article says "Adapted with permission". However, I can't see any way to verify that permission. Has it been verified? --Alvestrand 04:39, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

NPOV
Seems like it just needs another source, "telephone triage" is a widely used term and is widespread. 128.241.40.27 07:48, 7 February 2007 (UTC)Fisherquaz


 * Another possibility is reducing this all the way down to a stub and building it up again. It sounds like one particular essay on the subject. --Alvestrand 18:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Merge
There is a tag proposing a merge to telenursing.
 * I think some aprts should be merged there but that a good deal of the article should stay here as a specific application of telenursing. RJFJR (talk) 20:29, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

The Future of Telephone triage
Moved from article because unreferenced so it sounds speculative.

The future job description of a telenurse might read: “Part-time positions in high volume high tech, 24 hour, integrated telemedicine call center. RN or NP with minimum of ten years nursing and five or more year’s telephone triage experience. Eligible candidates must be computer literate, culturally sensitive and possess excellent communication skills. Requires expert level decision-making, communications and negotiating skills. Experience with telemedicine and/or telemetry required. 80-Hour full-time orientation required. Bilingual nurses (esp. Spanish) highly desired. BS/MS in Psychology or Sociology a plus. Desired specialties: Pediatric, Adult/Geriatric, OB/GYN, Crisis Intervention, Behavioral Health, or Case Management.”

Already, some nurses work from home-based systems. However, in the future, many will practice from large national call centers. In these “mega call centers”, nurses may serve as the coordinator from the “hub” of an integrated computer and phone system—a network of phone-based health care services, calls ranging from crisis level to information-based and from telemedicine and internet based service to “POTs” -- “plain old telephone” lines.

As coordinators, nurses may manage and triage calls to Poison Control, 911, Suicide Prevention, the emergency department, office, home health, case managers and community hot lines. Rotation through these crisis level call centers will be commonplace as nurses learn how these agencies operate and manage calls. As part of the “community sentinel system” advice nurses will both monitor the community and alert appropriate agencies, such as 911, public health agencies or EDs, during community-wide seasonal health threats, such as heat waves, disease outbreaks and related media scares.

As case managers, they may routinely perform disease management by phone, pro actively managing populations of callers with CHF, asthma, and diabetes. All staff will be cross trained, as nurses monitor blood pressures and weights for home health clients, uterine activity for high risk mothers and intermittent cardiac arrhythmias to identify, diagnose and treat some cardiac problems.

Telehealth will subsume telephone triage, with the addition of visual display of patients from home, telemonitoring and internet access by both nurse and patient. For example, home health assessment will include heart, lung, and bowel sounds, blood pressure and pulse readings, gait, neuro exams and mood assessment.

Training programs will be a minimum of 40 hours and will include online training based on “real life” problems. Sophisticated training programs will provide patient call simulations from off site and nurses utilizing telemonitoring and electronic protocols.

Because telephone triage is an international phenomenon, conferences of the future will be international. Soon, experts from the Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and South America will converge to network and share solutions and expertise from a multi-national and multicultural perspective.

Accreditation in the future will likely be 80 hours of formal training through a regulatory agency, like AAACN. Core content will include telemedicine and telemetry, competency training, medical decision-making theory, legal aspects, specialized communication and negotiation training, psychology, community health systems and cultural sensitivity. Advice nurses will be experts in chronobiology, the science of how the biorhythm affects our health, prompting predictable seasonal, diurnal and nocturnal “surges” of such conditions as allergic reactions, heart attacks and strokes. Certified trainers from 911, suicide prevention, poison control and sexual assault response teams will provide specialized training as part of this program.